I 




Class J. 
Book J±U 






Copyright N° 



mz 



COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT, 







Alfred the Great in his study. 



Alfred the Great 



ALFRED THE GREAT 



J 

By THOMAS HUGHES 

Author of "Tom Brown's School Days," "Tom Brown at 
Oxford," "Life of David Livingstone," etc., etc. 






WITH AN INTRODUCTION 

By G. MERCER ADAM 



o » 

: 



• j ■> . > , 



ILLUSTRATED 



THE PERKINS BOOK COMPANY, 
296 Broadway, New York. 



THE LIBRARY OF 
CONGRESS, 

Two Copies Received 

APR 10 1903 

Copyright Entry 
CUSS 0- xXc. No 

vf ^ C I 

COPY B. 



Copyright, 1902, 
By E. A. BRAINERD. 






i 



CONTENTS, 

5 



PAGE 

PREFACE 5 

INTRODUCTORY NOTE 9 

CHAPTER I. 

OP KINGS AND KINGSHIP 13 

CHAPTER II. 

A THOUSAND YEARS AGO 21 

CHAPTER HI. 

CHILDHOOD 38 

CHAPTER IV. 

CNIHTHOOD 50 

CHAPTER V. 

THEDANE , 63 

CHAPTER VI. 

THE FIRST WAVE 75 

CHAPTER VII. 

ALFRED ON THE THRONE 87 

1 



2 CONTENTS. 

PAGE 

CHAPTER VIII. 

THE SECOND WAVE 98 

CHAPTER IX. 

ATHELNEY 107 

CHAPTER X. 

ETHANDUNE 121 

CHAPTER XI. 

RETROSPECT 134 

CHAPTER XII. 

THE KING'S BOARD OF WORKS « 143 

CHAPTER XIII. 

THE KING'S WAR OFFICE AND ADMIRALTY 154 

CHAPTER XIV. 

THE KING'S LAWS 166 

CHAPTER XV. 

THE KING'S JUSTICE 181 

CHAPTER XVI. 

THE KING'S EXCHEQUER 197 

CHAPTER XVII. 

THE KING'S CHURCH 208 

CHAPTER XVIII. 

THE KING'S FRIENDS 221 

CHAPTER XIX 

THE KING'S NEIGHBOURS 237 



CONTENTS. 3 

PAGE 

CHAPTER XX. 

THE king's foe 249 

CHAPTER XXI. 

THE THIRD WAVE 259 

CHAPTER XXII. 
THE KING'S home 277 

CHAPTER XXIII. 

THE KING AS AUTHOR 288 

CHAPTER XXIV. 

THE KING'S DEATH AND WILL 311 

CHAPTER XXV. 

THE KING'S SUCCESSORS 321 



EOEEWOED. 



To the student of old English history, important in 
many ways was the reign of Alfred the Great (871- 
901), for thirty years King of the West Saxons. His 
era is notable, as all know, for the invasion of Saxon 
England by the Danes or Norsemen, who, on the death 
of Egbert, Alfred's grandfather, began to over-run the 
island, under their rover Vikings or chiefs, issuing 
from the common German home of the Anglo-Saxon 
stock. These incursions Alfred repeatedly met and 
thwarted ; and, to enable himself more effectually to 
keep the invaders at bay, he got together a formidable 
naval force and overthrow the successive waves of 
them that landed and made desolate the kingdom. 
When he was not occupied in routing those who were 
long the scourge of the land, the King was to be found 
restoring the country to order, strengthening its de- 
fences, building cities, churches, and monasteries, and 
otherwise devoting himself to the good of his sub- 
jects, making laws for them, and generally improving 
their intellectual and social condition. He, however, 
had his reverses as well as his triumphs, as when 
Guthrum, the Danish leader, defeated his army, he 
had to seek safety for a time in the legendary and his- 

5 



6 FOREWORD. 

toric marshes of Athelney; though before long he 
again collected his forces and routed the Danes at 
Edington. On another occasion, he surrendered to 
his foes the kingdom of East Anglia (by the treaty 
of Wedmore), on condition of the Danes becoming 
Christians and living on friendly terms with his 
people. Nor were his years of peace lacking in ben- 
eficence, for he not only ruled his kingdom wisely, but 
did much to advance the arts and promote learning. 
In this latter respect, his zeal was great for the en- 
couragement of the arts and sciences, so far as these 
were practically known in his day ; while his own 
example as a learned scholar and diligent student was 
helpful and stimulating. 

Besides Alfred's renown as a soldier and maker 
of laws for the maintenance of justice, order, and 
peace in his kingdom, he is known also as a volumi- 
nous contributor to literature, alike through his own 
writings and through his many scholarly translations 
from the Latin into the Saxon tongue. This will 
be seen in the following pages from the interesting 
chapter which Judge Hughes, the writer of the mem- 
oir, has penned on " The King as Author." To-day, 
it would of course be foolish to appraise more highly 
than their worth these writings of a great and kingly 
Englishman; but when the time and circumstances 
are considered when the literary work of Alfred was 
produced — the anarchic and illiterate England of the 
ninth century — their value ought to be rated highly, as 
indeed they are by scholars, and were so rated by the 
learned of his own and succeeding ages. Nor are the 



FOREWORD. 7 

least of the items to his credit what he did as a law- 
giver and as a zealous and worthy laborer for Chris- 
tianity — for in his day not only intellectual, but civil 
and religious life, had to be awakened or restored, to- 
gether with reforms in the church, and the uplifting 
of the national and civilizing forces through educa- 
tion and the inculcation of morals. To these and 
other features of Alfred's career and character, Mr. 
Hughes has properly given prominence ; while he has 
written a most able, sympathetic, and appreciative 
memoir of the monarch who is at once the glory and 
the honor of the fair English motherland. " This I 
can now truly say," was Alfred's own testimony to 
the rectitude of his life and conduct, " that so long 
as I have lived I have striven tc live worthily, and 
after my death to leave my memory to my descendants 
in good works." " If the King who wrote these 
words," comments Professor Goldwin Smith, " did 
not found a university or a polity " (his name, how- 
ever, is associated with an Oxford College, which, a 
few years ago, celebrated the thousandth anniversary 
of its foundation by King Alfred), " he restored and 
perpetuated the foundations of English institutions, 
and he left what is almost as valuable as any institu- 
tion — a great and inspiring example of public duty." 

G. Mercer Adam. 



INTRODUCTORY NOTE. 



KING ALFRED AS A GEOGRAPHER. 

BY SIR CLEMENTS MARKHAM, PRESIDENT OF THE 
ROYAL GEOGRAPHICAL SOCIETY. 

It is a striking and suggestive fact that a ruler 
who surpassed all others that the world has ever seen 
in wisdom and insight should have given so high a 
place to geography. Alfred knew by experience that 
an acquaintance with the relative positions of places 
on the earth's surface was the necessary foundation 
of the kind of knowledge required equally by the 
statesman, the soldier, and the merchant; and he 
therefore gave its due place to geography in his grand 
scheme for the enlightenment of Englishmen. -'In this 
he was centuries in advance of his age. As was his 
wont, when he had resolved to bring knowledge on 
any particular subject within the reach of his people, 
he diligently sought out the best authority on geogra- 
phy. Ptolemy, Strabo, and Pliny were unknown to 
his generation, still hidden away in dark repositories 
and not to be unearthed until the dawn of the Renais- 
sance. In the ninth century the best geographical 
work was that of Orosius, who had lived in the days 

9 



10 ALFRED THE GREAT. 

of the Emperor Honorius. His work was a sum- 
mary of the world's history from the creation to the 
days of Honorius, with a sketch of all that was then 
known of geography. 

Alfred brought high qualifications to the task of 
translating and editing Orosius. In his boyhood he 
had twice made journeys to Home, which, as regards 
dangers and hardships, may be compared to an expe- 
dition to Lhasa at the present day. In after life he 
had become very intimately acquainted with the 
topography of his native island, from the Humber 
to the shores of the Channel and from the Severn to 
the East Anglian coast. As a military tactician, he 
knew each river, valley, hill-range, and plain; as an 
administrator, he had examined the capabilities of 
every district; and, as a naval commander, the har- 
bors and estuaries, the tides and currents were famil- 
iar to him. So far as his personal knowledge ex- 
tended, Alfred was a trained geographer. He was 
also in a position to increase the information derived 
from his own personal experiences by diligently col- 
lecting materials from those foreigners who fre- 
quented his court, and by reading. He had the gift 
of assimilating the knowledge thus acquired, and he 
studied most diligently. Above all, he was eager to 
investigate unknown things for the great end he al- 
ways had in view, — the good of his people. *-*Alf red's 
design was to collect the best and most extensive geo- 
graphical information, without confining himself to 
the text of Orosius. Thus he commences his geo- 
graphical work with a very lucid account of the peo- 



INTRODUCTORY NOTE. H 

pies of central Europe and of their relative positions, 
which is not the work of Orosius, but was composed 
by the king himself from his own sources of informa- 
tion. It is the only account from which such details 
in that age can be derived. 

When we consider the ignorance which prevailed in 
England before Alfred's time, we can form an idea of 
the immense importance of his geographical labours 
and of the brightness of the light with which he dis- 
pelled outer darkness in the minds of his countrymen. 
His work was more especially useful in his own time, 
owing to the intercourse he encouraged with foreign 
lands and to the frequent missions he despatched and 
received. Both through his promotion of intercourse 
with distant lands and through his literary work, our 
great king enlightened his people by disseminating 
geographical knowledge. The first to encourage Arc- 
tic exploration, the first to point the way to eastern 
trade by the Baltic, the first to open communication 
with India, his literary labours in the cause of geog- 
raphy are even more astonishing. There have been 
literary sovereigns since the days of Timseus of Sicily 
writing for their own glory or for their own edifica- 
tion or amusement. Alfred alone wrote with the sole 
object of his people's good; while in his methods, his 
scientific accuracy, and in his aims he was several 
centuries in advance of his time. After his death 
there was a dreary waste of ignorance, with scarcely 
even a sign of dawn on the distant horizon. A few 
Englishmen of ability, such as Roger Bacon and 
Sacrobosco, speculated and wrote on questions de 



12 ALFRED THE GREAT. 

splicer a; but there was no practical geography until 
Eden and Hakluyt rose up, nearly seven centuries 
after the death of our great king. Richard Hakluyt 
was indebted to Alfred for portions of his work, and 
he resembled his illustrious precursor somewhat in 
his zeal, his patriotism, and his diligence. . . .Alfred 
the Great was, in the truest sense of the term, a man 
of science; and we hail him as one who stands alone 
and unrivalled, — the founder of the science of geog- 
raphy in England. 



THE LIFE 

OF 

ALFRED THE GREAT. 



CHAPTER I. 

OF KINGS AND KINGSHIP. 

" We come now to the last form of heroism, that 
which we call ' Kingship/ — The Commander over 
men; he to whose will our wills are to be subordi- 
nated, and loyally surrender themselves and find 
their welfare in doing so, may be reckoned the most 
important of great men." " In all sections of Eng- 
lish life the God-made king is needed, is pressingly 
demanded in most, in some cannot longer without 
peril as of conflagration be dispensed with." So 
spoke, twenty years ago, the teacher, prophet, seer — 
call him what you will — who has in many ways 
moved more deeply than any other the hearts of this 
generation. Has not the conscience of England re- 
sponded to the words ? Have not most of us felt that 
in some shape — not perhaps in that which he 
preaches — what Mr. Carlyle calls " kingship " is, in 
fact, our great need ; that without it our modern life, 

13 



14 ALFRED THE GREAT. 

however full for the well-to-do amongst us of all that 
can interest, stimulate, gratify our intellects, pas- 
sions, appetites, is a poor and mean thing, ever get- 
ting poorer and meaner. Yes, this cry, to which Mr. 
Carlyle first gave voice in our day, has been going up 
from all sections of English society these many years, 
in sad, fierce, or plaintive accents. The poet most 
profoundly in sympathy with his time calls for 

" A strong still man in a blatant land, 
Whatever you name him what care I, 
Aristocrat, autocrat, democrat, one 
Who can rule and dare not lie." 

The newest school of philosophy preaches an " or- 
ganized religion/' an hierarchy of the best and ablest. 
In an inarticulate way the confession rises from the 
masses of our people, that they too feel on every side 
of them the need of wise and strong government — of 
a will to which their will may loyally submit — be- 
fore all other needs ; have been groping blindly after 
it this long while ; begin to know that their daily life 
is in daily peril for want of it, in this country of 
limited land, air, and water, and practically unlim- 
ited wealth. 

But Democracy, — how about Democracy? We 
had thought a cry for it, and not for kings, God-made 
or of any other kind, was the characteristic of our 
time. Certainly kings such as we have seen them 
have not gained or deserved much reverence of late 
years, are not likely to be called for with any great 
earnestness, by those who feel most need of guidance, 



OF KINGS AND KINGSHIP. 15 

and deliverance, in the midst of the bewildering con- 
ditions and surroundings of our time and our life. 

Some years ago the framework of society went all 
to pieces over the greater part of Christendom, and 
the kings just ran away or abdicated, and the people, 
left pretty much to themselves, in some places made 
blind work of it. Solvent and well-regulated society 
caught a glimpse of that same " big black democ- 
racy," — the monster, the Frankenstein, as they hold 
him, at any rate the great undeniable fact of our time, 
— a glimpse of him moving his huge limbs about, un- 
easily and blindly. Then, mainly by the help of 
broken pledges and bayonets, the so-called kings man- 
aged to get the gyves put on him again, and to shut 
him down in his underground prison. That was the 
sum of their work in the last great European crisis ; 
not a thankworthy one from the people's point of 
view. However, society was supposed to be saved, 
and the " party of order " so called breathed freely. 
No ; for the 1848 kind of king there is surely no audi- 
ble demand anywhere. 

Here in England in that year we had our 10th of 
April, and muster of half a million special consta- 
bles of the comfortable classes, with much jubilation 
over such muster, and mutual congratulations that we 
were not as other men, or even as these Frenchmen, 
Germans, and the like. Taken for what it was 
worth, let us admit that the jubilations did not lack 
some sort of justification. The 10th of April muster 
may be perhaps accepted as a sign that the reverence 
for the constable's staff has not quite died out yet 



16 ALFRED THE GREAT. 

amongst us. But let no one think that for this reason 
Democracy is one whit less inevitable in England 
than on the Continent ; or that its sure and steady 
advance, and the longing for its coming, which all 
thoughtful men recognise, however little they may 
sympathise with them, is the least incompatible with 
the equally manifest longing for what our people in- 
tend by this much-worshipped and much-hated name. 
For what does Democracy mean to us English in 
these years ? Simply an equal chance for all ; a fair 
field for the best men, let them start from where they 
will, to get to the front ; a clearance out of sham gov- 
ernors, and of unjust privilege, in every department 
of human affairs. It cannot be too often repeated, 
that they who suppose the bulk of our people want 
less government, or fear the man who " can rule and 
dare not lie," know little of them. Ask any repre- 
sentative of a popular constituency, or other man 
with the means of judging, what the people are ready 
for in this direction. He will tell you that, in spite 
perhaps of all he can say or do, they will go for com- 
pulsory education, the organization of labour ( includ- 
ing therein the sharp extinction of able-bodied pau- 
perism, the utilization of public lands, and other re- 
forms of an equally decided character. That for these 
purposes they desire more government, not less ; will 
support with enthusiasm measures, the very thought 
of which takes away the breath and loosens the knees 
of ordinary politicians ; will rally with loyalty and 
trustfulness to men who will undertake these things 
with courage and singleness of purpose. 



OF KINGS AND KINGSHIP. If 

But admit all this to be so, yet why talk of kings 
and kingship? Why try to fix our attention on the 
last kind of persons who are likely to help? Kings 
have become a caste, sacred or not, as you may hap- 
pen to hold, but at any rate a markedly separate caste. 
Is not this a darkening of counsel, a using of terms 
which do not really express your meaning? Demo- 
crats we know: Tribunes of the people we know. 
When these are true and single-minded, they are the 
men for the work you are talking of. To do it in 
any thorough way, in any way which will last, you 
must have men in real sympathy with the masses. 

True. But what if the special function of the king 
is precisely this of sympathy with the masses ? Our 
biblical training surely would seem to teach that it 
is. When all people are to bow before the king all 
nations to do him service, it is because " he shall de- 
liver the poor when he crieth, the needy also, and him 
that hath no helper." When the king prays for the 
judgments and righteousness of God, it is in order 
that " he may judge Thy people according unto right, 
and defend the poor." When the king sits in judg- 
ment, the reason of his sentence, whether of approval 
or condemnation, turns upon this same point of sym- 
pathy with the poor and weak, — " inasmuch as ye 
have done it, or not done it, to the least of these my 
brethren." From one end to the other of the Bible 
we are face to face with these words, " king " and 
" kingdom ;" from the first word to the last the same 
idea of the king's words, the king's functions, runs 
through history, poem, parable, statute, and binds 
2 



18 ALFRED THE GREAT. 

them together. The king fills at least as large a 
space in our sacred books as in Mr. Carlyle's ; the 
writers seem to think him, and his work quite as 
necessary to the world as Mr. Carlyle does. 

To those who look on the Hebrew scriptures as 
mere ancient Asian records, which have been luckilv 
preserved, and are perhaps as valuable as the Talmud 
or the Vedas, this peculiarity in them will seem of 
little moment. To those who believe otherwise — who 
hold that these same scriptures contain the revelation 
of God to the family of mankind so far as words can 
reveal Him — the fact is one which deserves and must 
claim their most serious thought. If they desire to 
be honest with themselves, they will not play fast and 
loose with the words, or the ideas; will rather face 
them, and grudge no effort to get at what real mean- 
ing or force lies for themselves in that which the 
Bible says as to kings and kingdoms, if indeed any 
be left for us. As a help in the study we may take 
this again from the author already quoted: — "The 
only title wherein I with confidence trace eternity, 
is that of king. He carries with him an authority 
from God, or man will never give it him. Can I 
choose my own king? I can choose my own King 
Popinjay and play what farce or tragedy I may with 
him: but he who is to be my ruler, whose will is to 
be higher than my will, was chosen for me in heaven. 
Neither except in such obedience to the heaven- 
chosen is freedom so much as conceivable." Words of 
very startling import these, no doubt; but the longer 
we who accept the Hebrew scriptures as books of the 



OF KINGS AND KINGSHIP. 19 

revelation of God think on them, the more we shall 
find them sober and truthful words. At least that 
is the belief of the present writer, which belief he 
hopes to make clearer in the course of this work to 
those who care to go along with him. 

And now for the word " king," for it is well that 
we should try to understand it before we approach 
the life of the noblest Englishman who ever bore it. 
" Cyning, by contraction king," says Mr. Freeman, 
" is evidently closely connected with the word Cyn, 
or Kin. The connexion is not without an important 
meaning. The king is the representative of the race, 
the embodiment of its national being, the child of his 
people and not their father." Another eminent 
scholar, Sir F. Palgrave, derives king from " Cen," 
a Celtic word signifying the head. " The commander 
of men," says Mr. Carlyle, " is called Rex, Regula- 
tor, Roi: our own name is still better — King, Kon- 
ning, which means Can-ning, able man." And so the 
ablest scholars are at issue over the word, which 
would seem to be too big to be tied down to either 
definition. Surely, whatever the true etymology may 
be, the ideas — " representative," " head," " ablest " 
— do not clash, but would rather seem necessary to 
one another to bring out the full meaning of the word. 
" The representative of the race, the embodiment of 
its national being," must be its " head," should be 
its " ablest, its best man." At any rate they were 
gathered up in him whose life we must now try to 
follow : " England's herdman," " England's dar- 
ling," " England's comfort," as he is styled by the 



20 ALFRED THE GREAT. 

old chroniclers. A thousand years have passed since 
Alfred was struggling with the mighty work ap- 
pointed for him by God in this island. What that 
work was, how it was done, what portion of it re- 
mains to this day, it will be our task and our privi- 
lege to consider. 



A THOUSAND YEARS AGO. 21 



CHAPTEK II. 



A THOUSAND YEARS AGO. 



" For a thousand years in Thy sight are but as yesterday, see- 
ing it is past as a watch in the night." 

The England upon which the child Alfred first 
looked out must, however, detain us for a short time. 
And at the threshold we are met with the fact that 
the names of his birthplace, Wanating (Wantage) ; 
of the shire in which it lies, Berroc-shire (Berk- 
shire) ; of the district stretching along the chalk hills 
above it. Ashdown; of the neighbouring villages, 
such as Uffington, Ashbury, Kingston-Lisle, Comp- 
ton, &c, remain unchanged. The England of a thou- 
sand years ago was divided throughout into shires, 
hundreds, tithings, as it remains to this day. Al- 
most as much might until lately have been said of 
the language. At least the writer, when a boy, has 
heard an able Anglo-Saxon scholar of that day main- 
tain, that if one of the churls who fought at Ash- 
down with Alfred could have risen up from his 
breezy grave under a barrow, and walked down the 
hill into Uffington, he would have been understood 
without difficulty by the peasantry. That generation 



22 ALFRED THE GREAT. 

has passed away, and with them much of the racy 
vernacular which so charmed the Anglo-Saxon anti- 
quary thirty years ago. But let us hear one of the 
most eminent of contemporary English historians on 
the general question. " The main divisions of the 
country," writes Mr. Freeman, " the local names of 
the vast mass of its towns and villages, were fixed 
when the Norman came, and have survived with but 
little change to our own day. . . . He found the 
English nation occupying substantially the same ter- 
ritory, and already exhibiting in its laws, its lan- 
guage, its national character, the most essential of 
the features which it still retains. Into the English 
nation, which he thus found already formed, his own 
dynasty and his own followers were gradually ab- 
sorbed. The conquered did not become Normans, but 
the conquerors did become Englishmen." Grand, 
tough, much-enduring old English stock, with all thy 
imperviousness to ideas, thy Philistinism, afflicting to 
the children of light in these latter days, thy obdu- 
rate, nay pig-headed, reverence for old forms out of 
which the life has flown, adherence to old ways which 
have become little better than sloughs of despond, 
what man is there that can claim to be child of thine 
whose pulse does not quicken, and heart leap up, at 
the thought % Who has not at the very bottom of his 
soul faith in thy future, in thy power to stand fast in 
this time of revolutions, which is upon and before 
thee and all nations, as thou hast stood through many 
a dark day of the Lord in the last thousand years ? 
But though the divisions of the country, and the 



A THOUSAND YEARS AGO. 23 

names, remain the same, or nearly so, we must not 
forget the great superficial change which has taken 
place by the clearance of the forest tracts. These 
spread, a thousand years ago, over very large dis- 
tricts in all parts of England. In these forests the 
droves of swine, which formed a considerable portion 
of the wealth, and whose flesh furnished the staple 
food of the people, wandered, feeding on acorns and 
beech-mast. Here, too, the outlaws, who abounded in 
those unsettled times, found shelter and safety; and 
they were used alike by Saxon and Dane for ambush 
and stronghold. Christian monks, escaping from the 
sack of their abbeys and cathedrals, and carrying 
hardly-saved relics, fled to them, and often lived in 
them for years ; and heathen bands, beaten and hard 
pressed by Alfred or his aldermen, could often foil 
their pursuers, and lie hidden in their shade, until 
the Saxon soldiery had gone home to their harvest, or 
their sowing. The sudden blows which the Danes 
seem always to have been able to strike in the begin- 
ning of their campaigns were made possible by these 
great tracts of forest, through which they could steal 
without notice. 

There were a few great trunk roads, such as Wat- 
ling Street, which ran from London to Chester, and 
the Ickenild Way, through Berks, Wilts, and Som- 
ersetshire, and highways or tracks connecting villages 
and towns. These seem to have been numerous and 
populous; and in them and the monasteries, before 
Alfred's time, trades had begun to flourish. We even 
find that there must have been skilful jewellers and 



24 ALFRED THE GREAT. 

weavers in Wessex; witness the vessels in gold and 
silver-gilt, and silk dresses and hangings, which his 
father and he carried to Rome as presents to the 
Pope, and Alfred's jewel, found in 1693 in Newton 
Park, near Athelney, and now in the Ashmolean 
Museum. The lands immediately adjoining towns, 
monasteries, and the houses of aldermen and thegns 
were well culivated, and produced cereals in abun- 
dance, and orchards and vineyards seem to have been 
much cared for. The state of the country, however, 
is best summed up by Kemble : — " On the natural 
clearings of the forest, or on spots prepared by man 
for his own uses; in valleys bounded by gentle 
acclivities which poured down fertilizing streams ; or 
on plains which here and there rose clothed with 
verdure above surrounding marshes ; slowly, and step 
by step, the warlike colonists adopted the habits and 
developed the character of peaceful agriculturists. 
The towns which had been spared in the first rush of 
war gradually became deserted and slowly crumbled 
to the soil, beneath which their ruins are yet found 
from time to time, or upon which shapeless masses 
yet remain to mark the sites of a civilization whose 
bases were not laid deep enough. All over England 
there soon existed a network of communities, the 
principle of whose being was separation as regarded 
each other, the most intimate union as respected the 
individual members of each. Agricultural not com- 
mercial, dispersed not centralized, content within 
their own limits, and little given to wandering, they 
relinquished in a great degree the habits and feelings 



A THOUSAND YEARS AGO. 25 

which had united them as military adventurers, and 
the spirit which had achieved the conquest of an 
empire was not satisfied with the care of maintaining 
inviolate a little peaceful plot, sufficient for the cul- 
tivation of a few simple households." 

Bishop Wilfrid, a century before, had instructed 
the South Saxons in improved methods of fishing, and 
they were energetic hunters, so that their tables were 
well provided with lighter delicacies, though as a 
people they preferred heavy and strong meats and 
drinks. Their meals were frequent, at which the 
boiled and baked meats were handed round to the 
guests on spits, each helping himself as he had a 
mind. The heavy feeding was followed by heavy 
carousings of mead and ale; and, for rich people, 
wine, and " pigment," a drink made of wine, honey, 
and spices, and " morat," a drink of mulberry-juice 
and honey. Harpers and minstrels played and sang 
while the drinking went on, providing such intellec- 
tual food as our fathers cared to take, and jugglers 
and jesters were ready, with their tumblings of one 
kind or another, when the guests wearied of the per- 
formances of the higher artists. 

Song-craft was at this time less cultivated in Eng- 
land, except by professors, than it had been a hundred 
years before. Then every guest was expected to take 
his turn, and it would seem to have been somewhat of 
a disgrace for a man not to be able to sing, or recite 
some old Teutonic ballad to music. Thus we find 
in the celebrated story of Csedmon, told in Bede's 
" Ecclesiastical History," that though he had come 



26 ALFRED THE GREAT. 

to full age he had never learnt any poetry, "and 
therefore at entertainments, when it had been 
deemed for the sake of mirth that all in turn should 
sing to the harp, he would rise for shame from the 
table when the harp approached him, and go out." 
The rest of the story is so characteristic of the times 
that we may well allow Bede to finish it in this place. 
" One time when he had done this, and left the house 
of the entertainment, he went to a neat stall of which 
he had charge for the night, and there set his limbs 
to rest, and fell asleep. Then a man stood by him in a 
dream and hailed him by name, and said, ' Csedmon, 
sing me something. 7 Then answered he, ' I cannot 
sing anything, and therefore I went out from the 
entertainment and came hither for that I could not 
sing.' But the man said, i However, thou canst sing 
to me.' Cgedmon asked then, ' What shall I sing? ' 
and the man answered, ' Sing me Creation.' When 
he had received this answer, then began he at once 
to sing in praise of God the Creator verses and words 
which he had never heard. This was the begin- 
ning : — 

" ' Now let us praise 

The keeper of heaven's kingdom, 

The creator's might, 

And the thought of His mind, 

The words of the World-Father — 

How of all wonders 

He was the beginning. 

The holy Creator 

First shaped heaven 

A roof for earth's children ; 

Then the Creator, 



A THOUSAND YEARS AGO. 27 

The keeper of mankind, 
The Eternal Lord, 
The Almighty Father, 
Afterwards made the earth 
A fold for men.' 

Then arose he from sleep, and all that he sleeping 
had sung he held fast in his memory, and soon added 
to them many words as of a song worthy of God. 
Then came he on the morrow to the town-reeve who 
was his alderman, and told him of the gift he had 
gotten, and the town-reeve took him to the abbess 
(St. Hilda), and told her. Then she ordered to gather 
all the wise men, and bade him in their presence tell 
his dream and sing the song, that by the doom of 
them all it might be proved what it was, and whence 
it came. Then it seemed to all, as indeed it was, that 
a heavenly gift had been given him by the Lord him- 
self. Then they related to him a holy speech, and 
bade him try to turn that into sweet song. And when 
he had received it he went home to his house, and 
coming again on the morrow sang them what they 
had related to him in the sweetest voice." So 
Csedmon was taken by Abbess Hilda into one of her 
monasteries, and there sang " the outgoing of Israel's 
folk from the land of the Egyptians, and the ingoing 
of the Land of Promise, and of Christ's incarnation 
and sufferings and ascension, and many other spells 
of Holy Writ. But he never could compose anything 
of leasing or of idle song, but those only which 
belonged to religion, and became a pious tongue 
to sing." 



28 ALFRED THE GREAT. 

The cowherd getting his inspiration, and carrying 
it at once to his town-reeve; the reference to the 
saintly abbess ; the conference of the wise men of the 
neighbourhood to pass their doom on the occurrence ; 
and the consequent retirement of Caedmon from the 
world, and devotion to the cultivation of his gift un- 
der the shadow of the Church, form a picture of one 
corner of England, a thousand years ago, which may 
help us to understand the conditions of life amongst 
our ancestors in several respects. For one thing it 
brings us directly into contact with the Church — in 
this ninth century the most obvious and important 
fact in England, as in every other country of Christ- 
endom. Churches have been divided into those that 
audibly preach and prophesy; those that are strug- 
gling to preach and prophesy, but cannot yet; and 
those that are gone dumb with old age, and only mum- 
ble delirium prior to dissolution. This would look 
like an exhaustive division at first sight, but yet the 
English Church, at the time of Alfred's birth, would 
scarcely fall under either category. 

Up to the beginning of the ninth century the 
history of the Church in England had been one of 
extraordinary activity and earnestness. She had not 
only completed her work of conversion within the 
island, and established centres from which the highest 
education and civilization then attainable flowed out 
on all the Teutonic kingdoms, from the English 
Channel to the Frith of Forth, but had also sent 
forth a number of such missionaries as St. Boniface, 



A THOUSAND YEARS AGO. 29 

such scholars as Alcuin, to help in the establishment 
of their Master's kingdom on the Continent. 

The sort of work which she was still doing in Eng- 
land, in the eighth century, may be gathered from 
the authentic accounts of the lives of such men as 
St. Cuthbert, who is said to have been Alfred's patron 
saint, which may easily be separated from the mi- 
raculous legends with which they are loaded. St. 
Cuthbert from his boyhood had devoted himself to 
monastic life, and had risen to be rector of his 
monastery, when some great epidemic passed over the 
northern counties. 

" Many then, in that time of great pestilence, 
profaned their profession by unrighteous doings, 
and — neglecting the mysteries of the holy faith in 
which they had been instructed — hastened and 
crowded to the erring cures of idolatry, as if they 
could ward off the chastisement sent by God their 
maker by magic or charms, or any secret of devil- 
craft. To correct both these errors, the man of God 
often went out of his monastery, and sometimes on 
a horse, at other times on his feet, came to the places 
lying round, and preached and taught to the erring 
the way of steadfastness in the truth. It was at that 
time the custom with folk of the English kin that 
when a mass priest came into town they should all 
come together to hear God's word, and would gladly 
hear the things taught and eagerly follow by deeds 
the words they could understand. Now the holy 
man of God, Cuthbert, had so much skill and learn- 
ing, and so much love to the divine lore which he 



30 ALFRED THE GREAT. 

had begun to teach, and such a light of angelic looks 
shone from him, that none of those present durst hide 
the secrets of the heart from him, but all openly con- 
fessed their deeds, and their acknowledged sins bet- 
tered with true repentance, as he bade. He was wont 
chiefly to go through those places and to preach in 
those hamlets which were high up on rugged moun- 
tains, frightful to others to visit, and whose people 
by their poverty and ignorance hindered the approach 
of teachers. These hindrances he by pious labour 
and great zeal overcame, and went out from the mon- 
astery often a whole week, sometimes two or three, 
and often, also, for a whole month would not return 
home, but abode in the wild places, and called and in- 
vited the unlearned folk to the heavenly life both by 
the word of his love and by the work of his virtue." 

Thus teaching the poor in the highest matters, and 
also showing them with his own hands how to till 
and sow — " it being the will of the Heavenly Giver 
that crops of grain should be up-growing " in waste 
places, — and how to find and husband water, Cuth- 
bert, and such priests as he, spent their lives. But a 
change had passed over the Church in the last fifty 
years. The Bedes and Alcuins had died out, and 
left no successors. Learning was grossly neglected, 
and the slothful clergy had allowed things to come 
to such a pass that Alfred in his youth could find 
no master south of the Thames to teach him Latin. 
Even the study of the Scriptures was very negligently 
performed, and the education of the people was no 
longer cared for at all. Bishop Ealstan, soldier and 



A THOUSAND YEARS AGO. 31 

statesman, had succeeded the Alcuins; and St. 
Swithin, bent on advancing the interests of Home, 
the St. Bonifaces and St. Cuthberts. 

Still, however, the Church in Wessex, if not 
audibly preaching and prophesying, was very far 
from having gone dumb with old age. She had 
within her the seeds of strength and growth, for 
Rome had not laid her hand heavily on the western 
island. The advice given by Pope Gregory to St. 
Augustine, in answer to the questions of the latter 
as to the customs which should be insisted on in the 
new Church, had been on the whole faithfully fol- 
lowed. " It seems good and is more agreeable to 
me," writes the great statesman-pope, " that whatso- 
ever thou hast found, either in the Roman Church, or 
in Gaul, or in any other, that was more pleasing to 
Almighty God, thou shouldst carefully choose that, 
and set it to be held fast in the Church of the English 
nation, which now yet is new in faith. For the things 
are not to be loved for places, but the places for good 
things. Therefore, what things thou choosest as 
pious, good, and right from each of sundry Churches, 
these gather thou together, and settle into a custom 
in the mind of the English nation." And again as to 
uncanonical marriages, which are to be resisted but 
not punished with denial of the Communion, " for at 
this time the Holy Church corrects some things 
through zeal, bears with some through mildness, over- 
looks some through consideration; and so bears and 
overlooks that often by bearing and overlooking she 
ehecks the opposing evil." 



32 ALFRED THE GREAT. 

And the policy had answered in many ways. 
England had still the inestimable boon of services 
in her own tongue, and a clergy who were not celi- 
bate. So the Church had prospered, and the land 
was full of noble churches, abbeys, monasteries ; but 
the ecclesiastics had not emancipated themselves from 
the civil governor, and their persons and property 
were answerable to him for breach of the laws of the 
realm. Mortmain had not yet become the "dead 
hand ; " and while Church lands were at least as well 
tilled and cared for as those of king or thegn, and 
sent their equal quota of fighting men to the field 
(often led by such bishops as Ealstan of Sherborne, 
whom Alfred must have known well in his youth). 
Church establishments were the refuge for thousands 
of men and women, the victims of the wild wars of 
those wild times, the seats of such little learning as 
was to be found in the land, and the chief places in 
which working in metals, and weaving, and other 
manual industries could be learned or successfully 
practised. 

Yet pagan traditions still to some extent held 
their own. For instance, the descent of the royal 
race of Cerdic, from which Alfred sprung, from the 
old Teuton gods, is as carefuly traced by Bishop 
Asser and other chroniclers up to " Woden, who 
was the son of Frithewalde, who was the son of 
Trealaf, who was the son of Frithawulf, who was 
the son of Geta, whom the Pagans worshipped 
as a god;" as the further steps which carry the line 
on up to " Seeaf the son of Noah, who was born in 



A THOUSAND YEARS AGO. 33 

the Ark." Pagan rites and ceremonies, modified in 
many ways, but clearly traceable to their origin, were 
common enough. Still the two centuries and up- 
wards since St. Augustine's time had done their 
work. England was not only in name a Christian 
country, but a living faith in Christ had entered into, 
and was practically the deepest and strongest force 
in, the national life. The conditions of faith and 
worship amongst the West Saxons, and generally the 
relations of his people with the Invisible, if not 
wholly satisfactory, were yet of a hopeful kind for a 
young prince of the royal race of Cerdic. 

In other departments of human life in Wessex the 
outlook had also much of hopefulness in it, as well as 
deep causes of anxiety, for Alfred, as he grew up in 
his father's court. That court was a migratory one. 
The King of the West Saxons had no fixed home. 
Wherever in the kingdom the need was sorest, there 
was his place ; and so from Kent to Devonshire, 
from the Welsh Marshes to the Isle of Wight, we 
find him moving backwards and forwards, wherever 
a raid of Britons or Danes, the consecration of a 
church, a quarrel between two of his aldermen, the 
assembly of his Great Council, might call him. The 
government lies indeed heavily on his shoulders. 
He must be the first man in fight, in council, in 
worship, in the chase. True he can do no imperial 
act, cannot make a law, impose a tax, call out an 
army, or make a grant of folkland, without the sanc- 
tion of his witan; but in all things the initiative is 
with him, and without him the witan is powerless. 
3 



34 ALFRED THE GREAT. 

That famous Council, common to all the Teutonic 
tribes, had by this time amongst the West Saxons 
lost its original character of a gathering of all free- 
men. Probably no one below the rank of thegn at- 
tended the meetings of the witan in the time of Ethel- 
wulf. The thegn was, however, simply an owner of 
land, and so a seat in the Great Council was in fact 
open to any cheorl, even it would seem to any thrall 
who could earn or win as his own five hides of land, 
a church, a kitchen, a bell-house, and a burghate seat. 

The possession of land, then, was the first object 
with the Englishman of the ninth, as it is with the 
Englishman of the nineteenth century. At that time 
the greater part of the kingdom was still folkland, 
belonging to the nation, and only alienable by the 
king and his witan. When, however, any portion of 
the common inheritance was so alienated, the grantee 
held of no feudal lord, not even of the king. As a 
rule, the land became his in a sense in which, theoret- 
ically at least, no man has owned an acre in England 
since the Gorman Conquest. Subject only to march- 
ing to meet invasion, and the making and restoring 
of roads and bridges, the Saxon freeholder held his 
land straight from the Maker of it. 

But it is not only in the case of the common or 
folkland that a strong tinge of what would now be 
called, socialism manifests itself in the life of our 
forefathers. Teutonic law, as Mr. Kemble has 
shown, bases itself on the family bond. The com- 
munity in which he is bom and lives, the guild to 
which he has bound himself, the master whom he 



A THOUSAND YEARS AGO. 35 

serves, are responsible for the misdoings of the citi- 
zen craftsman servant. The world-old question, 
"Am I my brother's keeper ? " was answered with 
emphasis in the affirmative here in England a thou- 
sand years back. Indeed the responsibility was car- 
ried in some directions to strange lengths, for it seems 
that if a man should " for three nights entertain in 
his house a merchant or stranger, and should supply 
him with food, and the guest so received should com- 
mit a crime, the host must bring him to justice or 
answer for it." On the other hand, so jealous were 
our fathers of vagabonds in the land, that " if a 
stranger or foreigner should wander from the high- 
way, and then neither call out nor sound horn, he is 
to be taken for a thief and killed, or redeemed by 
fine," for in truth there are so many pagan Danes, 
and other disreputable persons, scattered up and 
down the land, that society must protect itself in a 
summary manner. 

This it did by laws which, up to Alfred's time, 
were administered under the king by aldermen. 
These great officers presided over shires, or smaller 
districts, and held an authority which, under weak 
kings, amounted almost to independence. The 
officers were hereditary, and no special training, or 
education of any kind, was required of the holders. 
Simple as the code of King Ina was, such judges 
were not competent to administer it; and Alfred, 
when at length he had time for them, found the most 
searching reforms required in this department. 

This code of Ina, the one in force in Wessex, was 



36 ALFRED THE GREAT. 

mainly a list of penalties for murder, assaults, rob- 
beries, injuries to forests and cattle. It contained 
also provisions as to the treatment of slaves, who 
formed a considerable portion of the population. 
They were for the most part Welsh, and other 
prisoners of Avar, or men who had been sentenced to 
servitude. The laws were enforced bv fine or cor- 
poral punishment, imprisonment being unknown in 
the earlier codes. Such as they were, the laws of the 
Anglo-Saxons were at least in their own mother 
tongue, and could be understood by the people. In 
the king's and aldermen's courts, as well as in church 
and at the altar, the Englishman was able to plead 
and pray in his own language, a strong proof of the 
vigour of the national life after making allowance 
for all the advantage of insular position, and for- 
tunate accident. 

We may note also that these islanders are singu- 
larly just to their women, far more so than their de- 
scendants on either side of the Atlantic have come to 
be after the lapse of a thousand years. Married 
women could sue and be sued, and inherit and dis- 
pose of property of all kinds. Women could attend 
the shire-gemot, even the witena-gemot — could sit, 
that is, on vestries, or in parliament — and were pro- 
tected by special laws in matters where their weakness 
of body would otherwise place them at a disadvan- 
tage. Our fathers acknowledged, and practically en- 
forced, the equality of the " spindle half " and the 
" spear-half " of the human family. 

Above the servile class, or the thralls, the nation 



A THOUSAND YEARS AGO. 37 

was divided broadly into " eorl " and " cheorl," all 
of whom were freemen, the former gently born, and 
possessing privileges of precedence, which gather 
surely enough round certain families in races amongst 
whom birth is reverenced. 

Under such conditions of life then our West Saxon 
fathers were living in the middle of the ninth century. 
A stolid, somewhat heavy people, entirely divorced 
from their old wandering propensities, and settling 
down, too rapidly perhaps, into plodding, money- 
making habits, in country and town and cloister, but 
capable of blazing up into white battle heat, and of 
fighting with untameable stubbornness, when their 
churches, or homes, or flocks are threatened ; capable 
also, not unfrequently, of rare heroism and self-sac- 
rifice when a call they can understand comes to them. 
A nation capable of great things under the hand of a 
true king. 



38 ALFRED THE GREAT. 



CHAPTER III. 



CHILDHOOD. 



In the year 849, when Alfred was born at the royal 
burgh of Wantage, the youngest child of ^Ethelwulf 
and Osberga, the King of the West Saxons had 
already established his authority as lord over the 
other Teutonic kingdoms in England. Until the 
time of Egbert, the father of ^Ethelwulf, this over- 
lordship had shifted from one strong hand to another 
amongst the reigning princes, each of whom, as occa- 
sion served, rose and strove for the dignity of bret- 
walda, as it was called. Now it would be held by a 
Mercian, then by a Northumbrian, and again by a 
king of East Anglian or Kentish men. But when, in 
the year 800, the same in which the Emperor Charle- 
magne was crowned by the Pope, the Great Council 
of Wessex elected the iEtheling Egbert king of the 
West Saxons, all such contention came to an end. 
For Egbert, exiled from his own land by the bret- 
walda, Offa of Mercia, had spent thirteen years in the 
service of Charlemagne, and had learned in that 
school how to consolidate and govern kingdoms. He 
reigned thirty-seven years in England, and at his 



CHILDHOOD. 30 

death all the land owned him as over-king, though the 
Northumbrians, Mercians, and East Anglians still 
kept their own kings and great councils, who gov- 
erned within their own borders as Egbert's men. In 
Egbert's later character he is called King of the Eng- 
lish, and the name of Angiia was by him given to the 
whole kingdom. 

It is said that the last bretwalda and first king of 
all England felt uneasy forebodings as to the destiny 
of his kingdom when he was leaving it to his son and 
successor. Ethelwulf, from his youth up, had been 
of a strongly devotional turn, and was too much un- 
der the influence of the clergy to please his father. 
He would probably have followed his natural bent, 
and entered holy orders, but that Egbert had no other 
son. So as early as 828 he had been made King of 
Kent, and soon afterwards married Osberga, the 
daughter of his cup-bearer Oslac. There in Kent, 
under the eye of Egbert, he reigned for ten years, not 
otherwise than creditably, making head against the 
Danish pirates, who were already appearing almost 
yearly on the coast, in a manner not unworthy of his 
great father and still greater son. Indeed, if he was 
swayed more than his father liked by churchmen, the 
influence of Ealstan, the soldier-bishop of Sherborne, 
would seem to have been as powerful with him as that 
of the learned and non-combatant Bishop Swithin of 
Winchester, afterwards saint. ]STor did courage or 
energy fail him after he had succeeded to Egbert's 
throne, for we find him in the next few years com- 
manding in person in several pitched battles with the 



40 ALFRED THE GREAT. 

Danes, the most important of which was fought in 851 
at a place in Surrey which the chroniclers call Aciea 
(the oak plain), and which is still named Ockley. The 
village lies a few miles south of Dorking, under Leith 
Hill, from which probably Ethelwulf 's scouts marked 
the long line of Pagans, and signalled to the King 
their whereabouts. They were marching south, 
along the old Roman road, the remains of which may 
still be seen near the battlefield, heavy with the spoils 
of London, it is said, part of which city they had 
succeeded in sacking. Ethelwulf fell on them from 
the higher ground, and severely defeated them, re- 
covering all the spoil. Again, a little later in the 
same year, at Sandwich in Kent, and after that Wes- 
sex was scarcely troubled with them for eight years. 
So now Ethelwulf had leisure to turn his thoughts to 
a pilgrimage to Rome, which he had had it in his 
mind to make ever since he had been on the throne. 
But two years passed and still he was not ready to 
start, and in 853 Buhred, king of Mercia, applied to 
him as his over-lord for help against the Welsh. 
Then Ethelwulf marched himself against the Welsh 
with Buhred, and pursued their king, Roderic Mawr, 
to Anglesey, where he acknowledged Ethelwulf as his 
over-lord, who returning in triumph to Wessex, there 
at the royal burgh of Chippenham gave his daughter 
Ethelswitha to Buhred as his wife. 

Being thus hindered himself from starting on his 
pilgrimage, Ethelwulf in that same year sent his 
young son Alfred, of whom he was already more fond 
than of his elder sons, to Rome, with an honourable 



CHILDHOOD. 41 

escort. There the boy of five was received by Leo 
IV. as his son by adoption, and, it would seem, 
anointed him king of the West Saxons. The fact is 
recorded both in the Saxon Chronicle and in that of 
Asser, who upon such a point would probably have 
the King's own authority. Whether a step so con- 
trary to all English custom was taken by Ethelwulf 's 
request, in order to found a claim to the succession 
for his favourite son, is unknown. In any case, no 
such special claim was ever urged by Alfred himself. 

Leo was no unworthy spiritual father to such a 
boy. He was busy at this time with the enclosure of 
the quarter of the Vatican, the restoration of the old 
walls and fortifications, and the arming and inspirit- 
ing of the Romans. Moorish pirates had been lately 
in the suburbs of the Eternal City, and had profaned 
the tombs of the Apostles St. Peter and St. Paul. 
What with pagan Danes in the northern seas, and 
Moors in the Mediterranean, the coasts of Christen- 
dom had little rest a thousand years ago, and it be- 
hoved even the Holy Father to look to his fighting 
gear and appliances. 

How long Alfred stayed at Rome on this occasion 
is uncertain ; but if the opinion which would seem to 
be gaining ground amongst students is correct — that 
he did not return, but waited the arrival of Ethel- 
wulf two years later-p we must give up the well- 
known story of his earning the book of Saxon poems 
from his mother. J 

This is related by Asser as having happened when 
he was twelve years old or more, which is clearly 



42 ALFRED THE GREAT. 

impossible, as his mother Osberga must have been 
dead before 856, when his father married Judith, as 
we shall hear presently. However, the tale is thus 
told by the old chronicler, the personal friend of 
Alfred : " On a certain day, his mother was show- 
ing him and his brothers a book of Saxon poetry 
which she held in her hand, and said, - Whichever of 
you shall first learn this book shall have it for his 
own.' Moved b} r these words, or rather by a divine 
inspiration, and allured by the illuminated letters, 
he spoke before his brothers, who though his seniors 
in years were not so in grace, and answered, ' Will 
you really give that book to the one of us who can first 
understand and repeat it to you ? ? Upon which his 
mother smiled and repeated what she had said. So 
Alfred took the book from her hand and went to 
his master to read it, and in due time brought it 
again to his mother and recited it." 

Now Alfred, one regrets to remark, before his first 
journey to Rome, could scarcely have been old 
enough to get by heart a book of poems, though he 
might have done so after his return, and before his 
second journey in his father's train. 

This happened in 855. Before starting, Ethel- 
wulf, by charter signed in the presence of the bishops 
Swithin and Ealstan, gave one-tenth of his land 
throughout the kingdom for the glory of God and 
his own eternal salvation ; or, as some chroniclers say, 
released one-tenth of all lands from royal service and 
tribute, and gave it up to God. In that same year 
we may also note that an army of the Pagans first 
sat over winter in the Isle of Sheppey. 



CHILDHOOD. 43 

A bright brave boy, full of the folk-lore of his own 
people, with a mind of rare power and sensitiveness 
and docile, loving, reverent soul, crossing France in 
the train of a king, and that king his own father — en- 
tertained now at the court of the grandson of Charle- 
magne, now at the castles of warrior nobles, now by 
prelates whose reputation as learned men is still alive 
■ — traversing the great Alps, and through the garden 
of the world approaching once again the Eternal City, 
renewing the memories of his childhood amongst its 
ruins and shrines and palaces, under the sky of 
Italy — one cannot but feel that such an episode in 
his young life must have been full of fruit for him 
upon whom were so soon to rest the burden of a life 
and death struggle with the most terrible of foes, 
and of raising a slothful and stolid nation out of 
the darkness and exhaustion in which that struggle 
had left them ? 

And what a year was this of a. d. 855 for a young 
prince with open mind and quick eye to spend in 
Rome ! His godfather, the brave old Pope Leo, on 
his deathbed, dead probably before the arrival of the 
Saxon pilgrims; the election and inauguration of 
Benedict the Third, without appeal to or consultation 
with the Emperor Lothaire, swiftly following — as 
swiftly followed by protest of said Emperor, riots, 
and the flight and speedy return in triumph of Ben- 
edict to the chair of St. Peter ; the illness and death of 
Lothaire himself, the whispered stories of the strug- 
gle for his corpse between the devils and the startled 
but undaunted monks of Pruim (cvrcumstaniibus 



4A ALFRED THE GREAT. 

corpus ejus trdhi ei detrahi videretur, sed monacliis 
orantibus dcemones sunt fatigati) ; the entrance of 
young Imperator Lewis — all these things Alfred must 
have seen and heard with his own eyes and ears in 
that eventful year. 1 

Meantime whether Pope or Emperor, clerical or 
imperial party, were uppermost for the moment, we 
may be sure that the Englishmen were received and 
treated with all honour. For Ethelwulf, besides the 
homage and reverence of an enthusiastic pilgrim, 
brought with him costly gifts, a crown four pounds in 
weight, two dishes, two figures, all of pure gold, urns 
silver-gilt, stoles and robes of richest silk interwoven 
with gold. All these, with munificent sums of out- 
landish coin, this king with a name which no Roman 
can write or speak, brings for the holy father and St. 
Peter's shrine. Before his departure, too, he has 
rebuilt and re-endowed the Saxon schools, and prom- 
ised 300 marks yearly from his royal revenues. 100 
each for the filling of the Easter lamps on the shrines 
of St. Peter and St. Paul with finest oil, 100 for the 
private purse of their successor. 

It was not till after Easter in the next year that 
the royal pilgrim took thought of his people in the far 
west, and turned his face homewards, arriving again 
at the court of Charles the Bald in the early summer 
of 856. Through the long vista of years \ve can still 

1 Did he also see the elevation or attempted elevation of Pope 
Joan to the papacy ? It is a papal legend that an English- 
woman by descent, and Joan by name, was elected or^ the 
death of Leo IV. 



CHILDHOOD. 45 

get a bright gleam or two of light upon that court in 
those same days. 

Notwithstanding the troubles which were pressing 
on his kingdom from the Danes and Northmen on 
his coasts ; from turbulent nephew Pepin, with infidel 
Saracens for allies, on the south ; from disloyal nobles 
in Aquitaine itself, — the court of Charles the Bald 
was at once stately and magnificent, and the centre 
of all that could be called high culture outside of 
Rome. Charles himself, like Ethelwulf, was under 
the influence of priests, who in fact ruled for him. 
But the head of them, Hincmar, Archbishop of 
Bheims, was before all things a statesman and a 
Frenchman, who would maintain jealously his sov- 
ereign's authority and the liberties of the national 
Church ; could even on occasion rebuke popes for at- 
tempted interference with the temporal affairs of dis- 
tant kingdoms, which " kings constituted by God per- 
mit bishops to rule in accordance with their decrees." 

Both king and minister were glad to gather schol- 
ars and men of note and piety round them; and at 
Compiegne, or Verberie, in these months, Alfred 
must have come to know at any rate Grimbald, and 
John Erigena, the former (if not both) of whom, in 
after years, at his invitation, came over to live with 
him and teach the English. John, an Irishman by 
adoption, if not by birth, was in fact at this time 
master of the school of the palace, or, as we should 
say, tutor to the royal family. In the schoolroom 
Alfred must have been welcomed by Judith, a beau- 
tiful and clever girl of fourteen years of age or 



46 ALFRED THE GREAT. 

thereabouts ; and Charles, the boy-king of Aquitaine, 
scarcely older than himself, lately sent home from 
those parts by the nobles. They there, we may 
fancy, reading and talking with John the Irishman 
on many subjects. He, for his part, for the moment, 
at the instigation of Hincmar, is engaged in discus- 
sion with Abbot Pascasius, who is troubling the 
minds of the orthodox with speculations as to the na- 
ture and manner of the presence of Christ in the 
Holy Eucharist ; with the German monk Gotteschalk, 
who is inviting all persons to consider the doctrine of 
free-will with a view to its final settlement to the 
satisfaction of the good folk. John, the Irishman, 
is ready enough to do Hincmar's bidding, does in 
fact do battle with both Pascasius and Gotteschalk, 
but seems likely to finally settle nothing of conse- 
quence in relation to these controversies, as he (not, 
we should imagine, to the satisfaction of Archbishop 
Hincmar) proves to be a strenuous maintainer of the 
right of private judgment, and human reason, instead 
of an orthodox defender of the faith. 

Alfred must have been roused unpleasantly from 
his studies in the school of the palace, by the news 
that his father is about to marry the young Judith, 
his fellow-pupil. This ill-starred betrothal takes 
place in July, and on October 1st, at the palace of 
Verberie, the marriage between the Saxon king of 
sixty and upwards, and the French girl of fourteen, 
is celebrated with great magnificence, Hincmar him- 
self officiating. The ritual used on the occasion is 
said to be still extant. Judith was placed by her hus- 
band's side and crowned queen. 




Alfred spent much time reading and talking with John the Irishman.— Page 46. 

Alfred the Great. 



CHILDHOOD. 47 

The news of which crowning was like to have 
wrought sore trouble in England, for the Great Coun- 
cil of Wessex had made a law in the first year of King 
Egbert's reign, that no woman should be crowned 
queen of the West Saxons. This they did because 
of Eadburgha, the wife of Beorhtric, the last king. 
She being a woman of jealous and imperious temper 
had mixed poison in the cup of Warr, a young noble, 
her husband's friend, of which cup he died, and the 
king having partaken of it, died also. And Ead- 
burgha fled, first to Charlemagne, who placed her 
over a convent. Expelled from thence she wandered 
away to Italy, and died begging her bread in the 
streets of Pavia. The West Saxons therefore set- 
tled that they would have no more queens. So when 
Ethelbald, the eldest living son of the King, who had 
been ruling in England in his father's absence, heard 
of this crowning, he took counsel with Ealstan the 
bishop, and Eanwulf the great alderman of Somerset, 
and it is certain that they and other nobles met and 
bound themselves together by a secret oath in the for- 
est of Selwood — the great wood, silva magna, or Coit 
mawr, as we learn from Asser, the British called it. 
Whether the object of their oath was the dethrone- 
ment of King Ethelwulf is not known, but it may 
well be that it was so, for on his return he found his 
people in two parts, the one ready to fight for him, 
and the other for his son. 

But Ethelwulf with all his folly was a good man, 
and would not bring such evil on his kingdom. So 
he parted it with his son, he himself retaining Kent 



48 ALFRED THE GREAT. 

and the crown lands, and leaving Wessex to Ethel- 
bald. The men of Kent had made no such law as 
to women, and there Judith reigned as queen with 
her husband for two years. 

Then the old King died, and, to the horror and 
scandal of the whole realm, Judith his widow was in 
the same year married to Ethelbald, " contrary to 
God's prohibition and the dignity of a Christian, 
contrary also to the custom of all Pagans." This 
Ethelbald, notwithstanding the scandal and horror, 
carries the matter with a high hand his own way. A 
bold, bad man, for whose speedy removal we may be 
thankful, in view of the times which are so soon com- 
ing on his countrv. 

Let us here finish the strange story of this princess, 
through whom all our sovereigns since William the 
Conqueror trace their descent from the Emperor 
Charlemagne. She lived in England for yet two 
years, till the death of Ethelbald, in 860, when, sell- 
ing all her possessions here, she went back to her fath- 
er's court. Erom thence she eloped, in defiance of 
her father, but with the connivance of her young 
brother Lewis, with Baldwin Bras-de-fer, a Flemish 
noble. The young couple had to journey to Rome to 
get their marriage sanctioned, and make their peace 
with Pope ISTicholas I., to whom the enraged Charles 
had denounced her and her lover. Judith, however, 
seems to have had as little trouble with his Holiness 
as with all other men, and returned with his absolu- 
tion, and letters of commendation to her father. 
Charles thereupon made her husband Count of Flan- 



CHILDHOOD. 49 

ders, and gave him all the country between the 
Scheie!, the Sambre, and the sea, " that he might be 
the bulwark of the Frank kingdom against the North- 
men." 

This trust Baldwin faithfully performed, building 
the fortress of Bruges, and ruling Flanders manfully 
for many years. And our Alfred, though, we may 
be sure, much shocked in early years at the doings 
of his young stepmother, must have shared the fate 
of the rest of his sex at last, for we find him giving 
his daughter Elf rid a as wife to Baldwin, second 
Count of Flanders, the eldest son of Judith. From 
this Baldwin the Second, and Alfred's daughter El- 
frida, the Conqueror's wife Matilda came, through 
whom our sovereigns trace their descent from Alfred 
the Great. And so the figure of fair, frail, fasci- 
nating Judith flits across English history in those 
old years, the woman who next to his own mother 
must have had most influence on our great king. 
4 



50 ALFRED THE GREAT. 



CHAPTER IV. 



ClS T IHTHOOD. 



" "Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way ? 
Even by ruling himself after Thy word." 

The question of questions this, at the most crit- 
ical time in his life for every child of Adam who ever 
grew to manhood on the face of our planet; and so 
far as human experience has yet gone, the answer of 
answers. Other answers have been, indeed, forth- 
coming at all times, and never surely in greater 
number or stranger guise than at the present time: 
" Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way ? y ' 
Even by ruling himself in the faith " that human 
life will become more beautiful and more noble in 
the future than in the past." This will be found 
enough " to stimulate the forces of the will, and 
purify the soul from base passion," urge, with a zeal 
and ability of which every Christian must desire to 
speak with deep respect, more than one school of 
our nineteenth century moralists. 

" Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his 
way ? " Even by ruling himself on the faith, " that 
it is probable that God exists, and that death is not 
the end of life ;" or again " that this is the only 



CNIHTHOOD. 51 

world of which we have any knowledge at all." 
Either of these creeds, says the philosopher of the 
clubs, if held distinctly as a dogma and consistently 
acted on, will be found " capable of producing prac- 
tical results on an astonishing scale." So one would 
think, but scarcely in the direction of personal holi- 
ness, or energy. Meantime, the answer of the He- 
brew psalmist, 3,000 years old, or thereabouts, has 
gone straight to the heart of many generations, and I 
take it will scarcely care to make way for any so- 
lution likely to occur to modern science or philos- 
ophy. Yes, he who has the word of the living God 
to rule himself by — who can fall back on the strength 
of Him who has had the victory over the world, the 
flesh, and the devil — may even in this strange dis- 
jointed time of ours carry his manhood pure and 
unsullied through the death-grips to which he must 
come with " the lust of the flesh, the lust of the 
eye, and the pride of life." He who will take the 
world, the flesh, and the devil by the throat in his 
own strength, will find them shrewd wrestlers. Well 
for him if he escape with the stain of the falls which 
he is too sure to get, and can rise up still a man, 
though beaten and shamed, to meet the same foes in 
new shapes in his later years. New shapes, and 
ever more vile, as the years run on. " Three sorts 
of men my soul hateth," says the son of Sirach, " a 
poor man that is proud, a rich man that is a liar, and 
an old adulterer that doateth." 

We may believe the Gospel history to be a fable, 
but who amongst us can deny the fact, that each son 



52 ALFRED THE GREAT. 

of man has to go forth into the wilderness— for us, 
' the wilderness of the wide world in an atheistic 
century "—and there do battle with the tempter as 
soon as the whisper has come in his ear : " Thou too 
art a man ; eat freely. All these things will I <rive 
thee." 6 

Amongst the Anglo-Saxons the period between 
childhood and manhood was called " cnihthood," the 
word « cniht " signifying both a youth and a servant. 
The living connexion between cnihthood and service 
was never more faithfully illustrated than by the 
young Saxon prince, though he had already lost the 
father to whom alone on earth his service "was due. 
The young nobles of Wessex of Alfred's time for the 
most part learnt to run, leap, wrestle, and hunt, and 
were much given to horse-racing and the use of arms ; 
but beyond this, we know from Alfred himself, that 
neither their fathers or they had much care to go. 
Doubtless, however, here and there were clerical men, 
like Bishop WLfrid in the previous century, to whom 
nobles sent their sons to be taught by him ; and when 
full-grown, " to be dedicated to God if they should 
choose it, or otherwise to be presented to the king- 
in full armour." It is not probable that Alfred ever 
had the advantage of such tuition, as he makes no 
mention of it himself. We do not know exactly how 
or when he learnt to read or write, but the story of 
how he met the young man's foes in the heyday of 
his youth and strength comes to us in Bishop 
Asser's life, precisely enough, though, in the lan- 
guage and clothing of a far-off time, with which we 



CNIHTHOOD. 53 

are little in sympathy. It seems better, however, to 
leave it as it stands. Any attempt to remove what 
we should call the miraculous element out of it 
would probably take away all life without rendering 
it the least more credible to readers of to-day. 

As he advanced through the years of infancy and 
youth, his form appeared more comely than those of 
his brothers, and in look, speech, and manners he was 
more graceful than they. He was already the dar- 
ling of the people, who felt that in wisdom and other 
qualities he surpassed all the royal race. Alfred 
then being a youth of this fair promise, while train- 
ing himself diligently in all such learning as he had 
the means of acquiring, and especially in his own 
mother tongue, and the poems and songs which 
formed the chief part of Anglo-Saxon literature, was 
not unmindful of the culture of his body, and was 
a zealous practiser of hunting in all its branches, and 
hunted with great perseverance and success. Skill 
and good fortune in this art, as in all others, the 
good Bishop here adds, are amongst the gifts of God, 
and are given to men of this stamp, as we ourselves 
have often witnessed. 

But before all things he was wishful to strengthen 
his mind in the keeping of God's commandments ; 
and, finding that the carnal desires and proud and 
rebellious thoughts which the devil, who is ever 
jealous of the good, is apt to breed in the minds 
of the young, were likely to have the mastery of him, 
he used often to rise at cock-crow in the early morn- 
ings, and repairing to some church, or holy place, 



54 ALFRED THE GREAT. 

there cast himself before God in prayer that he 
might do nothing contrary to His holy will. But 
finding himself still hard bested, he began at such 
times to pray as he lay prostrate before the altar, 
that God in His great mercy would strengthen his 
mind and will by some sickness, such as would be 
of use to him in the subduing of his body, but would 
not show itself outwardly or render him powerless 
or contemptible ni worldly duties, or less able to 
benefit his people. For King Alfred from his 
earliest years held in great dread leprosy, and 
blindness, and every disease which would make a 
man useless or contemptible in the conduct of affairs. 
And when he had often and with much fervor prayed 
to this effect, it pleased God to afflict him with a 
very painful disease, which lay upon him with little 
respite until he was in his twentieth year. 

At this age he became betrothed to her who was 
afterwards his wife, Elswitha, the daughter of 
Ethelred, the Earl of the Gaini in Mercia, whom 
the English named Mucil, because he was great 
of body and old in wisdom. Alfred, then at that 
time being on a visit to Cornwall for the sake of 
hunting, turned aside from his sport, as his custom 
often was, to pray in a certain chapel in which was 
buried the body of St. Guerir. There he entreated 
God that He would exchange the sickness with 
which he had been up to that time afflicted for 
some other disease, which should in like manner not 
render him useless or contemptible. And so, finish- 
ing his prayers, he got up and rode away, and soon 



CNIHTHOOD. 55 

after perceived within himself that he was made 
whole of his old sickness. 

So his marriage was celebrated in Mercia, to 
which came great numbers of people, and there was 
feasting which lasted through the night as well 
as by day. In the midst of which revelry Alfred was 
attacked by sudden and violent pain, the cause of 
which neither they who were then present, nor indeed 
any physician in after years, could rightly ascertain. 
At the time, however, some believed that it was the 
malignant enchantment of some person amongst the 
guests, others that it was the special spite of the 
devil, others again that it was the old sickness come 
back on him, or a strange kind of fever. In any 
case from that day until his forty-fourth year, if not 
still later, he was subject to this same sickness, which 
frequently returned, giving him the most acute pain, 
and, as he thought, making him useless for every 
duty. But how far the King was from thinking 
rightly in this respect, those who read of the burdens 
that were laid on him, and the work which he ac- 
complished, can best judge for themselves. 

We must return, however, to the death of Ethel- 
wulf, which happened, as we heard above, a.d. 858. 
That king, with a view, as he supposed, to prevent 
strife after his death, had induced the West Saxon 
witan to agree to the provisions of his will, and to 
sign it by some of their foremost men. These pro- 
visions were, that Ethelbald his eldest surviving son, 
who had rebelled against him, should remain king of 
Wessex, and, if he should die childless, should be 



5ft ALFRED THE GREAT. 

succeeded by his two youngest brothers, Etbelred and 
Alfred, in succession; while Ethelbert, the second 
son should be king of Kent, Sussex, and Surrey, with 
no right of succession to the greater kingdom. Thus 
even in his death, Ethelwulf was preparing trouble 
for his country, for the kingdom of Kent could not 
now have been separated from Wessex without war, 
nor was it likely that Ethelbert would accept his 
exclusion from the greater succession. His estates 
and other property the King divided between his 
children, providing that his lands should never lie 
fallow, and that one poor man in every ten, whether 
native or foreigner, of those who lived on them, 
should be maintained in meat, drink and clothing 
by his successors for ever. 

Erom 858 then, after their father's death, Etb- 
elred and Alfred lived in Kent with their brother 
Ethelbert until 860, when King Ethelbald died, and 
his widow Judith retired to France. Upon this 
event, had the younger brothers been self-seekers, or 
had either of them insisted on the right of succession, 
given to them by the will of their father, and sanc- 
tioned by the witan, of the south of England 
would have seen wars of succession such as those 
which raged on the Continent during that same 
century between the descendants of Charlemagne. 
Then Wessex and Kent must have fallen an easy 
prey to the pagan hosts which were already gathering 
for the onslaught, as happened in Northumbria and 
East Anglia. But at this juncture the royal race 
of Cerdic were free from such ambitions, and Eth- 



CNIHTHOOD. 57 

elred and Alfred allowed Ethelbert to ascend the 
throne of Wessex, and continued to live with him. 
He died in 866, after a peaceful and honourable 
reign of nearly six years, and there was grief through- 
out the land, say the chroniclers, when he was 
buried in Sherborne minster. Nevertheless we can- 
not but note that in 864 he had allowed a pagan 
army to establish themselves in the Isle of Thanet 
without opposition, and in 860 had left the glory 
of avenging the plunder of Winchester by another 
roving band to Osric alderman of Hants, and Eth- 
elwulf alderman of Berks. It was high time that 
the sceptre of the West Saxons should pass into 
stronger hands, for within a few months of the 
accession of Ethelred the great host under Hinguar 
and Hubba landed in East Anglia, which was never 
afterwards cast out of the realm, and for so many 
years taxed the whole strength of the southern king- 
doms under the leading of England's greatest king. 
Alfred was now Crown Prince, next in succession 
to the throne under the will of his father, which had 
been accepted by the witan. Under the same will he 
was also entitled in possession to his share of certain 
royal domains and treasures, which were thereby 
devised to Ethelbald, Ethelred, and him, in joint 
tenancy. He had already waived his right to any 
present share of this heritage once, on the accession 
of Ethelbert to the West Saxon kingdom. "Now that 
the brother nearest to himself in age has succeeded 
he applies for a partition, and is refused. The 
whole of these transactions are so characteristic of 



68 ALFRED THE GREAT. 

the time and the man, that we must pause yet for a 
few moments over them. We have his own careful, 
and transparently truthful, account of them, in the 
recitals to his will, which run as follow. 

Ci I, Alfred, by God's grace king, and with the 
counsel of Ethelred Archbishop, and all the witan of 
the West Saxons witness, have considered about my 
soul's health, and about my inheritance, that God 
and my elders gave me, and about that inheritance 
which King Ethelwulf my father bequeathed to us 
three brothers, Ethelbald, Ethelred, and me, and 
which of us soever were longest liver that he should 
take it all. But when it came to pass that Ethelbald 
died, Ethelred and I, with the witness of all the 
West Saxon witan, our part did give in trust to 
Ethelbert the king our brother, on the condition 
that he should deliver it back to us as entire as it then 
was when we did make it over to him; as he after- 
wards did (on his death) both that which he took by 
our joint gift and that which he himself had ac- 
quired. When it happened that Ethelred succeeded, 
then prayed I him before all our nobles that we two 
the inheritance might divide, and he would give to 
me my share. Then said he to me that he might not 
easily divide, for that he had at many different 
times formerly taken possession. And he said, both 
of our joint property and what he had acquired, that 
after his days he would give it to no man rather than 
to me, and I was therewith at that time well satis- 
fied." 

Why should a young prince otherwise occupied 



CNIHTHOOD. 59 

in the training of his immortal soul, and wrestlings 
with principalities and powers, take more account 
now of this inheritance ? Let it rest then as it is. 

" But it came to pass that we were all despoiled by 
the heathen folk. Then we consulted concerning our 
children (Alfred by this time having married) that 
they would need some support to be given by us out 
of these estates as to us had been given. Then were 
we in council at Swinbeorg, when we two declared in 
the presence of the West Saxon nobles, that which- 
soever of us two should live longest should give to 
the other's children those lands which we ourselves 
had acquired, and those that Ethelwulf the king gave 
to us two while Ethelbald was living, except those 
which he gave to us three brothers. And we gave 
each to other security that the longest liver of as 
should take land and treasure and all the possessions 
of the other, except that part which either of us to 
his children should bequeath. " 

In which sad tangle, which no man can unravel, 
the inheritance question rests at the death of King 
Ethelred in 871. There is the agreement indeed 
but what does it mean ? Alfred will not himself 
decide it. Here is the Great Council of the West 
Saxons. Let them say whether or no he can deal 
with this part of the royal inheritance, or to whom it 
of right belongs. " So when the King died," Alfred 
goes on, " no man brought to me title-deed, or evi- 
dence that it was to be otherwise than as we had 
so agreed before witnesses, yet heard I of inheritance 
suits. Wherefore brought I Ethelwulf the king's 



60 ALFRED THE GREAT. 

will before our council at Langadene, and they read 
it before all the West Saxon witan. And after it was 
read, then prayed I them all for my love — and gave 
to them my troth that I never would bear ill-will to 
none of them that should speak right — that none of 
them would neglect, for my love nor for my fear, to 
declare the common right, lest any man should say 
that I had excluded my kinsfolk whether old or 
young. And they then all for right pronounced, and 
declared that they could conceive no more rightful 
title nor hear of such in a title-deed; and they said, 
1 It is all delivered into thy hand, wherefore thou 
mayest bequeath and give it, either to a kinsman, or 
a stranger as may seem best to thee.' " 

This council at Langadene was held most prob- 
ably between the years 880 and 885, after Alfred 
had triumphed over all his enemies, and was deep 
already in his great social reforms. Under the sanc- 
tion there given he distributes this part of the royal 
inheritance, as well as his own property, by his will, 
which we shall have to consider in its own place. 

Thus then we get a second result of Alfred's 
cnihthood. We have already seen him curbing suc- 
cessfully the unruly passions of his youth; paying 
willingly with health and bodily comfort to win that 
victory, since it can be won by him at no lower 
price. At the death of Ethelbald, and again of 
Ethelbert, after he had grown to manhood and must 
have been conscious of his power to manage lands and 
men, we now find him standing aside at once, and 
allowing two elder brothers in succession to keep his 



CNIHTHOOD. 61 

share of the joint heritage. He at least will give no 
example in the highest places of the realm of strife 
about visible things, will make any sacrifice of lands 
or goods so that he maintain peace and brotherly 
love in his own family. 

The tempter we may see has led this son of man 
into the wilderness without much success. The 
whisper " Take and eat " has met with a brave 
" Depart, Satan," from these royal lips. England 
may now look hopefully for true kingship and lead- 
ing from him who has already learned to rule like a 
king in the temple of his own body and spirit. 

We may notice for a third point that in these 
years of his cnihthood Alfred has gathered together 
the services of the hours (celebrationes horarum) 
with many of the Psalms — whether written by him- 
self or not we cannot tell, probably not — but form- 
ing a small manual, or handbook, which he always 
carries in his bosom, and which will be found helpful 
to him in many days of sore trial. 

With such garniture then of one kind or another, 
gathered together in these early years, the young 
crown prince stands loyaLy by the side of the young 
king his brother, looking from their western home 
over an England already growing dark under the 
shadow of a tremendous storm. When it bursts, 
will it spend itself on these Northumbrian and East 
Anglian coasts and kingdoms, or shall we too feel its 
rage? These must have been anxious thoughts for 
the young prince, questionings to which the answer 
was becoming month by month plainer and clearer 



62 ALFRED THE GREAT. 

at the time of his marriage. Within some six 
weeks of that ceremony he was already in arms in 
Mercia. Before the birth of his first child he was 
himself king, and nine pitched battles had been 
fought in his own kingdom of Wessex under his 
leadership. 



THE DANE. 63 



CHAPTER V. 

THE DANE. 

" The day of the Lord coineth, it is nigh at hand ; a day of 
darkness and of gloominess, a day of clouds and of thick 
darkness, as the morning spreads upon the mountains: a 
great people and a strong ; there hath not been ever the 
like, neither shall be any more after it, even to the years 
of many generations." 

A strange atmosphere of wild legend surrounds 
the group of tribes who, from the shores of the 
Baltic and the great Scandinavian peninsula, as 
well as from Denmark, in this ninth century fell 
upon all coasts of England ; at first swooping 
down in small marauding bands in the summer 
months, plundering towns, villages, and homesteads, 
and disappearing before the winter storms ; then 
coming in armies headed by kings and jarls, settling 
in large districts of the north and east, and from 
thence carrying fire and sword through the heart of 
Mercia and Wessex. They are of the same stock 
with the West Saxons and Jutes themselves, and 
speak a kindred language. Their kings also claim 
descent from Woden. The description of Tacitus 
applies to them as well as to their brother eea- 



04 ALFRED THE GREAT. 

rovers who, for centuries before them, came over 
under Hengist and Horsa, inflicting precisely that 
which their descendants are now to endure, and 
driving the old British stock back mile by mile from 
the Kentish and Sussex downs to the Welsh moun- 
tains and the Land's End. 

Three centuries earlier, the Arthur of British leg- 
end had fought the Saxons in the very districts which 
a yet greater English king is now to hold against 
as terrible odds. These Northmen, Scandinavians, 
Danes, like the Saxons, elect their kings and chiefs, 
noble lineage and valour being the qualifications for 
the kingly office. Affairs of moment are decided 
by general assemblies, in which the kings speak 
first, and the rest in turn as they are eminent for 
valour, birth, and understanding. Disapproval is 
signified by a murmur, approval by the clashing 
of spears, for they come to their assemblies armed. 
The king surrounds himself by a brave and numerous 
band of companions in arms, his glory in peace and 
safety in war. It is dishonourable to the king not 
to be first in fight, it is infancy for his intimate com- 
rades and followers to survive him in battle. But 
the power of the king is not unlimited ; he sets an 
example of valour rather than commands. The 
chiefs have different ranks according to his judg- 
ment, and amongst his followers there is the keenest 
emulation who shall stand foremost in his favour. 
They would rather serve for wounds than plough 
and wait the harvest, for it seems to them the part of 
a dastard to earn by the sweat of the brow what may 



THE DANE. 65 

be gained by the glory of the sword. Their women, 
too, are held in the same high estimation as those 
of the Saxons, and for the most part accompany them 
in their wanderings, and share their dangers and 
glories. 

To such a political and social organization we 
must add a religious faith second to none invented 
by man, not excepting that of Mahomet, in its power 
of consecrating valour, and inspiring men with con- 
tempt of pain and death. The idea of a universal 
father, the creator of sky and earth, and of mankind, 
the governor of all kingdoms, though found in the 
Edda, has by this time faded out from the popular 
faith. Woden is now the chief figure in that weird 
mythology — " wuctan," the power of movement, 
soon changing into the god of battles, " who giveth 
victory, who reanimates warriors, who nameth those 
who are to be s'ain." This Woden had been an in- 
spired teacher, as well as a conqueror, giving runes 
to these wild Northmen, a Scandinavian alphabet, 
and songs of battle. A teacher as well as a soldier, 
he had led them from the shores of the Black Sea (so 
their traditions told) to the fiords of Norway, the 
far shores of Iceland. Departed from amongst his 
people, he has drawn their hearts after him, and lives 
there above in Asgard, the garden of the gods. Here 
in his own great hall, Valhalla, the hall of Odin, 
he dwells; in that hall of heroes, into which the 
" Valkyrs," or " choosers of the slain," shall lead 
the brave, even into the presence of Odin, there to 
feast with him. This reward for the brave who die 

5 



66 ALFRED THE GREAT. 

in battle; but for the coward? He shall be thrust 
down into the realm of Hela, death, whence he shall 
fall to ISTifhleim, oblivion, extinction, which is below 
in the ninth world. 

Round the central figure of Woden cluster other 
gods. Chief of these, Balder the sun god, white, 
beautiful, benignant, who dies young — and Thor the 
thunder god, with terrible smiting hammer and aw- 
ful brows, engaged mainly in expeditions into Jotun 
land, a chaotic world, the residence of the giants or 
devils, " frost," " fire," " tempest," and the like. 
Thor's attendant is " Thealfi," manual labour. In 
his exploits the thunder god is like Samson, full of 
unwieldy strength, simplicity, rough humour. 

There is a tree of life too in that unseen world, 
Igdrasil, with its roots in Hela, the kingdom of 
death, at the foot of which sit the three " Nomas," 
the past, present, and future. Also the Scalds have 
a vision of supreme struggle of the gods and Jotuns, 
a day of the Lord, as the old Hebrew seers would call 
it, ending in a " Twilight of the gods," a sinking 
down of the created universe, with gods, Jotuns, and 
inexorable Time herself, into darkness — from which 
shall there not in due course issue a new heaven and 
new earth, in which a higher god and supreme jus- 
tice shall at last reign ? 

Under the sway of such a faith, and of their lust 
of wild adventure, pressed from behind by teeming 
tribes ever pushing westward, lured on in front by 
the settled coasts of England and France, rich al- 
ready in flocks and herdSj in village, town, and 



THE DANE. 67 

abbey, each standing in the midst of fertile and well- 
tilled districts, but surrounded by forests well 
adapted to cover the ambush or retreat of invaders, 
the sea-kings and their followers swept out year after 
year from the bays of Denmark and the fiords of 
Norway, crossing the narrow northern seas in their 
light half-decked boats, to spoil, and slay, and revel 
in " the play of swords, the clash of spear and buck- 
ler," " when the hard iron sings upon the high hel- 
mets." In the death-hymn of Regner Lodbrog are 
some thirty stanzas — each one beginning, " We 
fought with swords," and describing the joy of some 
particular battle — which trace the career of the old 
Norseman from the distant Gothland, up the Vistula, 
across Europe, in the Northumbrian land, the isles 
of the south, the Irish plains, till he makes an end : 
" When in the Scottish gulfs, I gained large spoils 
for the wolves. We fought with swords. This fills 
me still with joy, because I know a banquet is pre- 
paring by the father of the gods. Soon in the hall 
of Odin we shall drink mead out of the skulls of our 
foes. A brave man shrinks not at death; I shall 
utter no repining words as I approach the palace 
of the gods. . . . The fates are come for me. Odin 
hath sent them from the habitation of the gods. I 
shall quaff full goblets among the gods. The hours 
of my life are numbered ; I die laughing." Such 
are the last words which the Scalds put into the 
mouth of the grim old sea-king, dying in torment in 
the serpent-tower of Ella, to whom tradition points 
as the father of the two leaders of the first great Dan- 



68 ALFRED THE GREAT. 



ish invasion of England, the terrible wave which 
broke on the East Anglian shores in the year that 
Ethelred came to the throne. The death-hymn may 
be of uncertain origin, but at least it is a genuine and 
characteristic Bersirkir hymn ; and if Lodbrog were 
not the father of Hinguar and Hubba, they would 
seem, at any rate, to have been filled with his 
spirit. 

In 851 a band of Danes had first wintered in Eng- 
land, in the Isle of Thanet, and again in 855 another 
band wintered in the Isle of Sheppey ; but these were 
small bodies, attempting no permanent settlement, 
and easily dislodged. This invasion towards the 
end of 866 was of a far different character. A 
great army of the Pagans, the Saxon Chronicle re- 
cords, now came over and took up winter quarters 
among the East Angles, who would seem at first to 
have made some kind of truce with them, and even 
to have furnished them with provisions and horses. 
At any rate, for the moment the Pagans made no 
attack on East Anglia, but early in 867 crossed the 
Humber and swooped down upon York city, which 
they surprised and took. 

There was civil war already in Northumbria at 
this time between Osbert the king, and Ella, a man 
not of royal blood, whom the Northumbrians had 
placed on the throne. Osbert, it is said, had outraged 
the wife of one of his nobles, Bruern Brocard by 
name, who received him hospitably while her hus- 
band was away at the coast on the king's business, 
watching for pirates. Whatever the cause, the civil 



THE DANE. 69 

feud raged so fiercely that the Danes were in the very 
heart of the kingdom before a blow was struck in its 
defence. Now at last, urged by the Northumbrian 
nobles, Osbert and Ella made peace, joined their 
forces, and without delay marched on York. The pa- 
gan army fell back before them even to the city walls, 
which the Christians at once tried to storm, and were 
partially successful. A desperate fight took place 
within and without the walls, ending in the utter de- 
feat of the Christians and the deaths of Osbert, Ella, 
and a crowd of nobles. The remainder of the people 
made peace with the army, whose descendants are 
probably still living in and round the city of York. 
At least their mark is there to this day in the street 
of Goodramgate, called after Gudrum or Goodrum, 
whom Hinguari and Hubba left as their deputy to 
hold down the city and district. 

For the remainder of this year the army lay quiet, 
exhausted no doubt by that York fight, and waiting 
for reinforcements from Denmark. At this junc- 
ture, while the black cloud is gathering in the north, 
Ealstan, the famous warrior-bishop of Sherborne, 
goes to his rest in peace, leaving the young king and 
prince, the grandsons of his old liege lord, Egbert, 
who had picked him out fifty years before, with no 
wiser counsellor or braver soldier to stand by them in 
this hour of need. 

Early in 868 Alfred journeys into Mercia to wed 
Elswitha, the daughter of Ethelred Mucil,as we have 
already heard. Scarcely can he have reached Wessex 
and installed his wife at Wantage, or elsewhere, when 



70 ALFRED THE GREAT. 

messengers in hot haste summon the king and him to 
the help of their brother-in-law, Buhred, king of 
Mercia. The pagan army is upon him. Stealing 
over swiftly and secretly, " like foxes," from North- 
umbria through forest and waste, as is their wont, 
they have struck at once at a vital part of another 
Saxon kingdom, and stormed Nottingham town, 
which they now hold. Ethelred and Alfred were soon 
before Nottingham with a force drawn from all parts 
of Wessex, eager for battle. But the wily pagan 
holds him fast in castle and town, and the walls are 
high and strong. The king and prince watch in vain 
outside. Soon their troops, hastily mustered, must 
get back for harvest. They march south reluctantly, 
not, however, before a peace is made between their 
brother-in-law and the Pagans, under which the lat- 
ter return to York, where they lie quiet for the whole 
of 869. 

But this vear also brought its own troubles to 
afflicted England — a great famine and mortality 
amongst men, and a pest among cattle. Such times 
can allow small leisure to a young prince who carries 
in his bosom that handbook in which the Psalms and 
services of the hours are written, and who has re- 
solved for his part to be a true shepherd of his 
people, a king indeed, but one who will rule under 
the eye, and in the name of the King of kings. 

The next year (870) is one full of sorrow, and of 
glory, for Christian England. It witnesses the utter 
destruction of another Saxon kingdom, adds one 
worthy English name to the calendar of saints, sev- 



THE DANE. 71 

eral to the roll of our heroes still remembered, and a 
whole people to the glorious list of those who have 
died sword in hand and steadfast to the last, for faith 
and fatherland. 

In the late summer, one division of the pagan army 
leaving York take to their ships, and, crossing the 
Humber, fall on Lindesey (now Lincolnshire), and 
plunder and burn the monastery of Bardeny. The 
young Algar, alderman of the shire, the friend of 
Ethel red and Alfred, springs to arms, and calls out 
the brave men of the Fens. They flock to his stan- 
dard, the rich cloisters of the district sending their 
full quota of fighting men under lay brother Toly, of 
Croyland Abbey. On the 21st of September, St. 
Maurice's Day, the Christian host fell on the Pagans 
at Kesteven, and in that first fight three kings were 
slain, and Algar pursued the Pagans to the entrance 
of their camp. 

But help for the vanquished was at hand. The 
other division of the Pagans, in which were now five 
kings — Guthrum, Bagsac, Oskytal, Halfdene, and 
Amund — and the jarls Hinguar and Hubba, Frene, 
and two Sidrocs, marching over land through Mercia, 
arrive on the field. Algar, Toly, and their com- 
rades, now fearfully overmatched, receive the Holy 
Sacrament in the early morning, and stand there to 
win or die. Algar commands the centre of the 
Christian battle, Toly and Morcar the right wing, 
Osgot of Lindesey and Harding of Behal (we cannot 
spare the names of one of them) the left. The Pa- 
gans, having burned their slain kings, hurl them- 



72 ALFRED THE GREAT. 

selves on the Christian host, and through the long 
day Algar and his men stand together and beat back 
wave after wave of the sea-kings' onslaught. At last 
the Christians, deceived by a feigned retreat, break 
their solid ranks and pursue. Then comes the end. 
The Pagans turn, stand, and surrounded and outnum- 
bered, Algar, Toly, and their men die where they had 
fought, and a handful of youths only escape of all the 
Christian host to carry the fearful news to the monks 
of Croyland. The pursuers are on their track. 
Croyland is burnt and pillaged before the treasures 
can be carried to the forests. 

Four days later Medeshamsted (Peterborough) 
shares the same fate; soon afterwards Huntington 
and Ely; and in all those fair shires scarcely man, 
woman, or child remain to haunt like ghosts the 
homes which had been theirs for generations. The 
pagan host, leaving the desolate land a wilderness 
behind them, turn south-east and make their head- 
quarters at Thetford. Edmund, king of the East 
Anglians, a just and righteous ruler, very dear to his 
people — no warrior, it would seem, hitherto, but one 
who can at least do a brave leader's part — he now 
arms and fights fiercely with the Pagans, and is slain 
by them, with the greater part of his followers, near 
the village of Hoxne. Tradition says that the king 
was taken alive, and, refusing to play the renegade, 
was tied to a tree, and shot to death, after undergoing 
dreadful tortures. His head was struck off, and the 
corpse left for wolf or eagle, while his murderers 
fell on town and village, and minster and abbey, 



THE DANE. 73 

throughout all that was left of East Anglia, so that 
the few people who survived fled to the forests for 
shelter. 

Nevertheless, a monk or two from Croyland, and 
other faithful men of the eastern counties, managed 
to steal out of their hiding-places and take up the 
slain body and severed head of their good King 
Edmund. " They embalmed him with myrrh and 
sweet spices, with love, pity, and all high and awful 
thoughts, consecrating him with a very storm of 
melodies, adoring admiration and sun-dyed showers 
of tears; joyfully, yet with awe (as all deep joy has 
something of the awful in it), commemorating his 
noble deeds and god-like walk and conversation while 
on earth. Till at length the very Pope and cardinals 
at Rome were forced to hear of it ; and they summing 
up as correctly as they well could with ' Advocates 
Diaboli ' pleadings, and their other forms of process, 
the general verdict of mankind declared: that he had 
in very fact led a hero's life in this world, and being 
now gone, was gone, as they conceived, to God above, 
and reaping his reward there." So King Edmund 
was canonized, and his body entombed in St. 
Edmund's shrine, where a splendid abbey in due 
time rose over it, some poor fragments of which may 
still be seen in the town of Bury St. Edmunds. 

Alas for East Anglia ! there was no one to take 
Edmund's place, to play the part for the eastern 
counties which Alfred played for Wessex a few years 
later. Edwold, the brother of Edmund, on whom the 
duty lay, " seeing that a hard lot had fallen on him- 



f 4 ALFRED THE GREAT. 

self and his brother, retired to the monastery of 
Carnelia in Dorsetshire, near a clear well which St. 
Augustine had formerly brought out of the earth by 
prayer to baptize the people in. And there he led 
a hermit's life on bread and water." So East Anglia 
remained for years a heathen kingdom, with Guth- 
rum, the most powerful and latest comer of the pagan 
leaders, for king. In the dread pause of the few 
winter months of 870-71 we may fancy the brave 
young king of the West Saxons and the Etheling Al- 
fred warning alderman and earl, bishop and mitred 
abbot, and thegn, throughout Wessex, that their turn 
had now come. There was nothing to delay the in- 
vaders for an hour between Thetford and the Thames. 
Their ships would be in the river, and their horse- 
men on the north bank, in the early spring. Then 
the last issue would have to be tried between Chris- 
tian and Pagan, Saxon and Dane, for stakes of which 
not even Alfred could estimate the worth to England 
and the world. 



THE FIEST WAVE. 75 



CHAPTER VI. 



THE FIRST WAVE. 



" Blessed be the Lord my strength, who teacheth my hands 
to war and my fingers to fight." 

Christmas 870-71 must have been a time of in- 
tense anxiety to the whole Christian people of Wes- 
sex. The young King had indeed shown himself al- 
ready a prompt and energetic leader in his march to 
Notingham at the call of his brother-in-law. But, 
unless perhaps in the skirmishes outside that be- 
leaguered town in the autumn of 869, he had never 
seen blows struck in earnest; had never led and ral- 
lied men under the tremendous onset of the Bersirkir. 
Alfred, though already the darling of the people, had 
even less experience than Ethelred, who was at least 
five years older. He was still a very young man, 
skilled in the chase, and inured to danger and hard- 
ship, so far as hunting and many exercises of all 
kinds could make him so, but as much a novice in 
actual battle as David when he stood before Saul, 
ruddy and of a fair complexion, but ready in the 
strength of his God, who had delivered him from the 
paw of the lion and the paw of the bear, to go up 



76 ALFRED THE GREAT. 

with his sling and stone and fight with the Bersirkir 
of his day. And this generation of the West Saxons, 
who were now to meet in supreme life-and-death con- 
flict such kings as Guthrum and Bagsac, such jarls 
as Hinguar and Sidroc, " the ancient one of evil 
days," and their followers — tried warriors from their 
youth up were much in the same case as their young 
leaders. The last battle of any mark in Wessex had 
been fought eleven years back, in 860, when a pagan 
host " came up from the sea " and stormed and sacked 
Winchester. Osric alderman of Hampshire, and 
Ethelwulf alderman of Berkshire, as we have already 
heard, caught them on their return to their ships la- 
den with spoil, and after a hard fight utterly routed 
them, rescued all the spoil, and had possession of the 
place of death. Of this Alderman Ethelwulf we 
shall hear again speedily, but Osric would seem to 
have died since those Winchester days. At any rate 
we have no mention of him, or indeed of any other 
known leader except Ethelwulf, in all that storm of 
battle which now sweeps down on the rich kingdom, 
and its stolid but indomitable sons. 

In these days when our wise generation, weighed 
down with wealth and its handmaid vices on the one 
hand, and exhilarated by some tiny steps it has man- 
aged to make on the threshold of physical knowledge 
of various kinds on the other, would seem to be bent 
on ignoring its Creator and God altogether — or at 
least of utterly denying that He has revealed, or is 
revealing Himself, unless it be through the laws of 
Mature — one of the commonest demurrers to Chris- 



THE FIRST WAVE. 77 

tianity has been, that it is no faith for fighters, for 
the men who have to do the roughest and hardest 
work for the world. I fear that some sections of 
Christians have been too ready to allow this demurrer, 
and fall back on the Quaker doctrines; admitting 
thereby that such " Gospel of the kingdom of heav- 
en " as they can for their part heartily believe in, and 
live up to, is after all only a poor cash-gospel, and 
cannot bear the dust and dint, the glare and horror, 
of battle-fields. Those of us who hold that man was 
sent into this earth for the express purpose of fighting 
— of uncompromising and unending fighting with 
body, intellect, spirit, against whomsoever or what- 
soever causeth or maketh a lie, and therefore, alas! 
too often against his brother man — would, of course, 
have to give up Christianity if this were true ; nay, 
if they did not believe that precisely the contrary of 
this is true, that Christ can call them as plainly in 
the drum beating to battle, as in the bell calling to 
prayer, can and will be as surely with them in the 
shock of angry hosts as in the gathering before the 
altar. But without entering further into the great 
controversy here, I would ask readers fairly and 
calmly to consider whether all the greatest fighting 
that has been done in the world has not been done by 
men who believed, and showed by their lives that they 
believed, they had a direct call from God to do it, and 
that He was present with them in their work. And 
further (as I cheerfully own that this test would tell 
as much in favour of Mahomet as of Cromwell, Gus- 
tavus Adolphus, John Brown) whether, on the whole, 



78 ALFRED THE GREAT. 

Christian nations have not proved stronger in battle 
than any others. I would not press the point unfair- 
ly, or overlook such facts as the rooting out of the 
British by these very West Saxons when the latter 
were Pagans ; all I maintain is, that from the time of 
which we are speaking to the last great civil war in 
America, faith in the constant presence of God in 
and around them has been the support of those who 
have shown the strongest hearts, the least love of ease 
and life, the least fear of death and pain. 

But we are wandering from the West Saxon king- 
dom and our hero in those days of the year 871. 
The Christians were not kept long in suspense. As 
soon as the frost had broken up, Danish galleys were 
beating up the Thames, and Danish horsemen steal- 
ing their way across Hertfordshire and Buckingham- 
shire. The kings Bagsac, llalfdene, and Guthrum, 
jarls Osbern, Frene, Harald, the two Sidrocs, and 
probably Tlinguar, led the pagan host in this their 
greatest enterprise on British soil. Swiftly, as was 
their wont, they struck at a vital point, and seizing 
the delta which is formed by the junction of the 
Thames and Kennet, close to the royal burgh of Read- 
ing, threw up earthworks, and entrenched themselves 
there. Whether they also took the town at this time 
is not clear from the Chronicles, but most likely they 
did, and in any case here they had all they wanted 
in the shape of a stronghold, fortified camp in which 
their spoils and the women and wounded could be 
left, and by which their ships could lie. Any reader 
who has travelled on the Great Western Railway has 



THE FIRST WAVE. 79 

crossed the very spot, a few hundred yards east of the 
station. The present racecourse must have been 
within the Danish lines. 

Two days sufficed for rest and the first necessary 
works, and on the third a large part of the army 
started on a plundering and exploring expedition un- 
der two of their jarls. At Englefield, a village still 
bearing the same name, some six miles due west of 
Reading, in the vale of Kennet — where the present 
county member lives in a house which Queen Bess 
visited more than once — they came across Alderman 
Ethelwulf, with such of the Berkshire men as he had 
been able hastily to gather in these few days. The 
Christians were much fewer in number, but the brave 
Ethelwulf led them straight to the attack with the 
words, " They be more than we, but fear them not. 
Our Captain, Christ, is braver than they." The 
news of that first encounter must have cheered the 
King and Alfred, who were busy gathering their 
forces further west, for Ethelwulf slew one of the 
jarls and drove the plunderers back to their entrench- 
ments with a great slaughter. The Saxon Chronicle 
says that one of the Sidrocs was the jarl slain at 
Englefield; but this could scarcely be, as the same 
authority, supported by Asser, gives both the Sidrocs 
on the death-roll of Ashdown. Four days afterwards 
Ethelred and Alfred march suddenly to Reading with 
a large force, and surprise and cut to pieces a number 
of the Pagans who were outside their entrenchments. 
Then, while the Saxons were preparing to encamp, 
kings and jarls rushed out on them with their whole 



80 ALFRED THE GREAT. 

power, and the tide of battle rolled backwards and 
forwards over the low meadows outside the royal 
burgh, victory inclining now to one side, now to the 
other. In the end, after great slaughter on both 
sides, the Saxons gave way, and the young king and 
his brother fell back from Reading, leaving the body 
of the brave and faithful Ethelwulf among the dead. 
It is said that the Pagans dragged it to Derby. 
What matter! The strong soul had done its work, 
and gone to its reward. Small need of tomb for the 
bodies of the brave and faithful — of such men the 
whole land and the hearts of its people is the tomb. 
A few lines in a later chronicler have here deceived 
even so acute and accurate a writer as Dr. Pauli, who 
says that Ethelred and Alfred were pursued from 
Reading field as far as Twyford, and crossed the 
Thames at a ford near Windsor, which was unknown 
to the Danes. Had this really been so, they must 
have gone due east, away from all their resources, 
and, the battle having been fought on the south bank 
of the Thames, must have crossed into Mercia, leav- 
ing the whole of Wcssex open to the pagan host. 
Dr. Pauli, and the authorities he has followed, going 
on this hypothesis, are at a loss as to the scene of 
the next great battle, that of Ascesdune, not knowing 
apparently that there is a district of that name in 
Berkshire, at the western end of the country, on the 
summit of the chalk hills which run through the 
country as a backbone from Goring to Swindon. 
Tradition agrees with the description of the field in 
the oldest chroniclers in marking this Ashdown as the 



THE FIRST WAVE. 81 

spot where the great fight was fougnt. Ethelred and 
Alfred then fell back with their broken bands along 
the south bank of the Thames westward, until they 
struck the hills, and then still back along the ancient 
track known as the Riclgeway, past Ilsley and past the 
royal burgh of Wantage, Alfred's birthplace, from 
which they probably drew the reinforcements which 
justified them in turning to bay on the fourth day 
after the disaster at Reading. The Pagans were on 
their track with their whole host (except King 
Guthrum and his men), in two divisions; one com- 
manded by the two kings Bagsac and Halfdene, the 
other by the jarls. Ethelred, on perceiving this dis- 
position of the enemy, divided his forces, taking com- 
mand himself of the division which was to act against 
the kings, and giving the other to Alfred. ' Each side 
threwup hasty earthworks, the remains of which may 
be seen to this day on at least three spots of the downs, 
the highest point of which is White Horse Hill ; and 
all of which, according to old maps, are included in 
the district known as Ashdown. That highest point 
had been seized by the Pagans, and here the opposing 
hosts rested by their watch-fires through the cold 
March night. We may fancy from the one camp the 
song of Regner Lodbrog beguiling the night 
watches : — " W T e fought with swords ! Young men 
should march up to the conflict of arms. Man should 
meet man and never give ground. In this hath ever 
stood the nobleness of the warrior. He who aspires 
to the love of his mistress should be dauntless in the 
clash of arms." In the other camp we know that 
6 



82 ALFRED THE GREAT. 

by one fire lay a youth, who carried in his bosom the 
Psalms of David written out in a fair hand, which 
he was wont to read in all intervals of rest. Here 
too is a son of Odin of the pure royal lineage, who 
will come to the clash of arms on the morrow in the 
strength of " the Lord of Hosts, who teacheth his 
hands to war and his fingers to fight." 

At earlv dawn the hosts are on foot. Let Alfred's 
old friend tell the tale in his own words : — " Alfred, 
we have been told by some who were there and would 
not lie, marched up promptly with his men to give 
battle. But King Ethelred stayed long time in his 
tent at prayer, hearing the mass, and sent word that 
he would not leave it till the priest had done, or 
abandon God's help for that of man. And he did so 
too, which afterwards availed him much, as we shall 
declare more fully. "Now the Christians had deter- 
mined that King Ethelred with his men should fight 
the two pagan kings, and that Alfred his brother with 
his men should take the chance of war against the 
earls. Things being so arranged, the King remained 
long time in prayer, while the Pagans pressed on 
swiftly to the fight. Then Alfred, though holding 
the lower command, coxild no longer support the on- 
slaught of the enemy without retreating, or charging 
upon them without waiting for his brother." A mo- 
ment of fearful anxiety this, we may note, for the 
young prince. But he has a strong heart for such a 
crisis ; and, dreading the effect on his men of one step 
backwards, puts himself at their head and leads them 
up the slope against the whole pagan host " with the 




Alfred leading his men at the battle of Ashdown.— Page 82. 

Alfred the Great. 



THE FIRST WAVE. 83 

rush of a wild boar " (aprino more). " For he too 
relied on the help of God," Asser goes on, and also 
we see had already learnt something from the Read- 
ing disaster, for " he formed his men in a dense pha- 
lanx to meet the foe," which was never broken in that 
long fight. Mass being over, Ethelred comes up to 
the help of his brother, and the battle raged along the 
whole hill-side. " But here I must inform those who 
are ignorant of the fact, that the field of battle was 
not equal for both sides. The Pagans occupied the 
higher ground, and the Christians came up from be- 
low. There was also in that place a single stunted 
thorn tree, which we have seen with our own eyes. 
Round this tree the opposing hosts came together with 
loud shouts from all sides, the one party to pursue 
their wicked course, the other to fight for their lives, 
their wives and children, and their country. And, 
when both sides had fought long and bravely, at last 
the Pagans by God's judgment gave way, being no 
longer able to abide the Christian onslaught, and after 
losing great part of their army broke in shameful 
flight. One of their two kings and five jarls were 
there slain, together with many thousand Pagans, 
who covered with their bodies the whole plain of Ash- 
down. There fell in that fight King Bagsac (by the 
hand, as some say, of Ethelred) ; Earl Sidroc the 
elder and Earl Sidroc the younger, Earl Osbern, 
Earl Erene, and Earl Harald. And all the pagan 
host pursued it3 flight, not only until night, but 
through the next day, even until they reached the 
stronghold from which they had come forth. The 



84 ALFRED THE GREAT. 

Christians followed, slaying all they could reach 
until dark." Ethelward the chronicler, the great- 
grandson of Ethelred, adds, " Neither before or since 
was ever such slaughter known since the Saxons first 
gained England by their arms." 

The whole story does not take more than ten lines 
in the chroniclers, but conceive what that short ten, 
or twenty minutes at most, must have been in the life 
of Alfred. A youth for the first time in independent 
command, with the memory of the mishap four days 
back at Reading as his only experience in war, op- 
posed to two hostile armies each as numerous as his 
own, flushed with their late victory, and led by the 
most terrible warriors of the time — he has to decide 
there, peremptorily, the fate of England hanging on 
his judgment, whether he will give ground and wait 
for his brother, or himself attack. Stand still he can- 
not, as the enemy swarm on the slopes above, and 
partially covered by the formation of the ground, al- 
ready ply his men with missiles to which they can 
make no useful reply. After that Ash down dawn 
every future supreme moment and crisis of his event- 
ful life must have come on him as child's-play. " Bag- 
sac and the two Sidrocs, at the top of the down, with 
double my numbers, already overlapping my flanks — 
Ethelred still at mass — dare I go up at them ? In 
the name of God and St. Cuthbert, yes." He who 
could so answer, and thereupon himself lead up the 
hill in wild-boar fashion (aprino more), has here- 
after no question he need fear in the domain of war. 
That moment has hardened his nerve to flint, and his 



THE FIRST WAVE. 85 

judgment amid the clash of arms, to steel. Through 
all those weary years of battle and misfortune that 
foLow, there is in Alfred no sign of indecision or 
faint-heartedness. 

Against any enemy but the Danes, such a victory 
as that of Ashdown would have been decisive for a 
generation, but the hopeless nature of the war which 
the West Saxons had now to maintain cannot be bet- 
ter illustrated than by the events which immediately 
follow. The scattered remains of the pagan army 
came back into the Reading entrenchments in the 
next fewjdays, and there seem to have found Guthrum 
and his troops, with new reinforcements of plunderers 
from East Anglia and over the sea, upon whom they 
rallied at once. In a fortnight they are again ready 
for a foray, and, avoiding the chalk hills, the scene 
of their late defeat, a large band of them strike across 
the Kennet, and so away south-west, through new 
country into Hampshire. Ethelred and Alfred has- 
tening down after them, catch them at Basing in a 
strong position, before which the Saxons are worsted, 
but, as is significantly added, the Pagans get no spoil 
in the expedition. One more battle the brave Ethel- 
red was destined, about two months later, to fight for 
his people. It is said to have happened at a place 
called Merton, but could scarely have been at the vil- 
lage in Surrey of that name, as is usually supposed. 
Guthrum would never have struck back through a 
country already pillaged, nor, had he done so, were 
Ethelred and Alfred likely to have followed, leaving 
the entrenched camp at Reading in their rear, and 



86 ALFRED THE GREAT. 

their own homes open to the garrison. However, at 
the place called Merton by the chroniclers, wherever 
it may be, the two brothers fought for the last time 
together against their unwearied foes. Large rein- 
forcements, " an innumerable summer army," as 
Ethelward calls them, had come to the Danish head- 
quarters at Reading in the last few weeks. They 
had now regained their old superiority in numbers, 
and fought again in two divisions. Through the 
greater part of the day the Saxons had the better, 
but towards evening fortune changed, and at last, 
after great loss on both sides, the Pagan " had posses- 
sion of the place of death." Edmund, the new bishop 
of Sherborne, successor to the gallant Ealstan, was 
here slain, and Ethelred himself is said to have been 
mortally wounded. At any rate he died almost im- 
mediately after the battle, and was buried by Alfred, 
with kingly honours, in Wimbourne Minster. Sher- 
borne, the burial-place of the family of Cerdic, had 
for the moment no bishop, was closed perhaps, may 
even have been in pagan hands. And thus, at the 
age of twenty-three, Alfred ascended the throne of 
his fathers, which was tottering as it seemed to its 
fall 



ALFRED ON THE THRONE. 87 



CHAPTER VII. 



ALFRED ON THE THRONE. 



" O Lord my God, Thou hast made Thy servant king ; and I 
am but a little child : I know not how to go out or to come in." 

The throne of the West Saxons was not an inheri- 
tance to be desired in the year 87 1, when Alfred 
succeeded his gallant brother. It descended on him 
without comment or ceremony, as a matter of course. 
There was not even an assembly of the witan to de- 
clare the succession, as in ordinary times. With 
Guthrum and Hinguar in their entrenched camp 
at the confluence of the Thames and Kennet, and 
fresh bands of marauders sailing up the former 
river, and constantly swelling the ranks of the pagan 
army during these summer months, there was neither 
time nor heart amongst the wise men of the West 
Saxons for strict adherence to the letter of the con- 
stitution, however venerable. We have seen, too, 
that the succession had already been settled by the 
Great Council, when they formally accepted the pro- 
visions of Ethelwulf's will, that his three sons should 
succeed to the exclusion of the children of any one 
of them. 



88 ALFRED THE GREAT. 

The idea of strict hereditary succession has taken 
so strong a hold of us English in later times, that it 
is necessary constantly to insist that our old English 
kingship was elective. Alfred's title was based on 
election ; and so little was the idea of usurpation, or 
of any wrong done to the two infant sons of Ethelred, 
connected with his accession, that even the lineal de- 
scendant of one of those sons, in his chronicle of that 
eventful year, does not pause to notice the fact that 
Ethelred left children. He is writing to his " beloved 
cousin Matilda," to instruct her in the things which 
he had received from ancient traditions, " of the his- 
tory of our race down to these two kings from whom 
we have our origin." " The fourth son of Ethel- 
wulf," he writes, " was Ethelred, who, after the death 
of Ethelbert, succeeded to the kingdom, and was also 
my grandfather's grandfather. The fifth was Alfred, 
who succeeded after all the others to the whole sov- 
ereignty, and was your grandfather's grandfather." 
And so passes on to the next facts, without a word as 
to the claims of his own lineal ancestor, though he 
had paused in his narrative at this point for the spe- 
cial purpose of introducing a little family episode. 

This king has indeed been anointed by the Pope, 
named by his royal father and brother, and elected by 
his people; may not we add, taking Mr. Carlyle's 
test, that he had been also elected for them in heaven ? 
If it will not hold in his case, we must indeed throw 
up this idea of election altogether, and allow that 
Heaven has nothing to say to the business. But we 
who value our England as we have it will not just 



ALFRED ON THE THRONE. 89 

now dispute about where or how Alfred got elected, 
or from whence the right came to him to stand forth 
in this dark hour, a shepherd who will give his life 
for the sheep, a monarch who has to tread the wine- 
press alone. Enough for us that he, and no other, 
was found there ; and so, that we have our own coun- 
try, and not another kind of country altogether in 
which to live. 

When Alfred had buried his brother in the cloisters 
of Wimborne Minster, and had time to look out from 
his Dorsetshire resting-place, and take stock of the 
immediate prospects and work which lay before him, 
we can well believe that those historians are right who 
have told us that for the moment he lost heart and 
hope, and suffered himself to doubt whether God 
would by his hand deliver the afflicted nation from 
its terrible straits. In the eight pitched battles which 
we find by the Saxon Chronicle (Asser giving seven 
only) had already been fought with the pagan army, 
the flower of the youth of these parts of the West 
Saxon kingdom must have fallen. The other Teu- 
tonic kingdoms of the island, of which he was over- 
lord, and so bound to defend, had ceased to exist, ex- 
cept in name, or lay utterly powerless, like Mercia, 
awaiting their doom. Kent, Sussex, and Surrey, 
which were now an integral part of the royal inherit- 
ance of his own family, were at the mercy of his ene- 
mies, and he without a hope of striking a blow for 
them. London had been pillaged, and was in ruins. 
Even in Wessex proper, Berkshire and Hampshire, 
with parts of W T ilts and Dorset, had been crossed and 



90 ALFRED THE GREAT. 

recrossed by marauding bands, in whose track only 
smoking ruins and dead bodies were found. " The 
land was as the garden of Eden before them, and be- 
hind them a desolate wilderness." These bands were 
at this very moment on foot, striking into new dis- 
tricts further to the south-west, than they had yet 
reached. If the rich lands of Somersetshire and 
Devonshire, and the yet unplundered parts of Wilts 
and Dorset, are to be saved, it must be by prompt and 
decisive fighting, and it is time for a king to be in 
the field. But it is a month from his brother's death 
before Alfred can gather men enough round his stan- 
dard to take the field openly. Even then, when he 
fights, it is " almost against his will," for his ranks 
are sadly thin, and the whole pagan army are before 
him, at Wilton near Salisbury. The action would 
seem to have been brought on by the impetuosity of 
Alfred's own men, whose spirit was still unbroken, 
and their confidence in their young king enthuiastic. 
There was a long and fierce fight as usual, during the 
earlier part of which the Saxons had the advantage, 
though greatly outnumbered. But again we get 
glimpses of the old trap of a feigned flight and am- 
buscade, into which they fell, and so again lose " pos- 
session of the place of death," the ultimate test of 
victory. " This year," says the Saxon Chronicle, 
" nine general battles were fought against the army 
in the kingdom south of the Thames ; besides which, 
Alfred the king's brother, and single aldermen and 
king's thanes, oftentimes made attacks on them, which 
were not counted ; and within the year one king and 



ALFRED ON THE THRONE, 91 

nine jarls were slain." Wilton was the last of these 
general actions, and not long afterwards, probably in 
the autumn, Alfred made peace with the Pagans, on 
condition that they should quit Wessex at once. They 
were probably allowed to carry off whatever spoils 
they may have been able to accumulate in their Read- 
ing camp, but I can find no authority for believing 
that Alfred fell into the fatal and humiliating mis- 
take of either paying them anything, or giving hos- 
tages, or promising tribute. There are constant no- 
tices of such payments in the chroniclers when any 
such were actually made, as, for instance, in the case 
of Mercia in the following vear; so, in the absence of 
positive affirmative evidence, I am not prepared to 
believe that Guthrum and his swarm of pirates were 
bought out of Wessex bv Alfred in the first year of 
his reign. It seems far more likely that they had had 
more desperate fighting, and less plunder, than suited 
them in those eight or nine months since thev broke 
up their winter quarters at Thetford, and were glad 
of peace for the present. This young king, who, as 
crown prince, led the West Saxons up the slopes at 
Ashdown, when Bagsac, the two Sidrocs, and the rest 
were killed, and who has very much- their own way 
of fighting — going into the clash of arms, " when the 
hard steel rings upon the high helmets," and " the 
beasts of prey have ample spoil," like a veritable child 
of Odin — is clearly one whom it is best to let alone, 
at any rate so long as easy plunder and rich lands are 
to be found elsewhere, without such poison-mad fight- 
ing for every herd of cattle, and rood of ground. In- 



92 ALFRED THE GREAT. 

deed I think the careful reader may trace from the 
date of Ashdown a decided unwillingness on the part 
of the Danes to meet Alfred, except when they could 
catch him at disastrous odds. They succeeded in- 
deed for a time in overrunning almost the whole of 
his kingdom, in driving him an exile for a few 
wretched weeks to the shelter of his own forests ; but 
whenever he was once fairly in the field, they pre- 
ferred taking refuge in strong places, and offering 
treaties and hostages, to the actual arbitrament of 
battle. 

So the pagan army quitted Reading, and wintered 
in 872 in the neighbourhood of London, at which 
place they receive proposals from Buhred, king of the 
Mercians, Alfred's brother-in-law, and for a money 
payment pass him and his people contemptuously by 
for the time, making some kind of treaty of peace 
with them, and go northward into what has now be- 
come their own country. They winter in Lincoln- 
shire, gathering fresh strength during 873 from the 
never-failing sources of supply across the narrow seas. 
Again, however, in this year of ominous rest they re- 
new their sham peace with poor Buhred and his Mer- 
cians, who thus manage to tide it over another winter. 
In 874, however, their time has come. In the spring, 
the pagan army under the three kings, Guthrum, 
Oskytal, and Amund, burst into Mercia. In this one 
only of the English Teutonic kingdoms they find 
neither fighting nor suffering hero to cross their way, 
and leave behind for a thousand years the memory of 
a noble end, cut out there in some half-dozen lines of 



ALFRED ON THE THRONE. 93 

an old chronicler, but full of life and inspiration to 
this day for all Englishmen. Here we have neither 
a pious Algar, or lay brother Toly, calmly taking 
their last sacrament at sunbreak, within hearing of 
the pagan rites over their fallen king ; nor Alderman 
Ethelwulf with his faith in the captaincy of Christ ; 
nor King Edmund, " gentle landlord," and slow in 
battle, but with the constancy that can brave all tor- 
ture, if the will of God be so ; still less a king who 
carries the Psalms of David in his bosom under his 
armour, and will fight nine pitched battles in a year, 
whose presence lifts the hearts of men, and nerves 
their arms till they cease to reckon odds. With no 
man to lead them, what can these poor Mercians do ? 
The whole country is overrun, and reduced under 
pagan rule without a blow struck, so far as we know, 
and within the year. This poor Buhred, titular king 
of the Mercians, who has made belief to rule this 
English kingdom these twenty-two years — who in his 
time has marched with his father-in-law Ethelwulf 
across North Wales — has beleaguered Nottingham 
with his brothers-in-law, Ethelred and Alfred, six 
years back, not without show of manhood — sees for 
his part nothing for it under such circumstances but 
to get away as swiftly as possible, as many so-called 
kings have done before him and since. The West 
Saxon court is no place for him, quite other views of 
kingship prevailing in those parts. So the poor Buh- 
red breaks away from his anchors, leaving his wife 
Ethelswitha even, in his haste, to take refuge with 
her brother ; or is it that the heart of the daughter of 



94 ALFRED THE GREAT. 

the race of Cerdic swells against leaving the land 
which her sires had won, the people they had planted 
there, in the moment of sorest need ? In any case 
Buhred drifts away alone across into France, and so 
towards the winter to Rome. There he dies at once, 
about Christmas time 874, of shame and sorrow prob- 
ably, or of a broken heart as we say ; at any rate hav- 
ing this kingly gift left in him, that he cannot live 
and look on the ruin of his people, as St. Edmund's 
brother Edwold is doing in these same years, " near 
a clear well at Carnelia, in Dorsetshire," doing the 
hermit business there on bread and water. 

The English in Rome bury away poor Buhred, 
with all the honours, in the church of St. Mary's, to 
which the English schools rebuilt by his father-in- 
law Ethelwulf were attached. Ethelswitha visited, 
or started to visit, the tomb years later, we are told, 
in 888, when Mercia had risen to new life under her 
great brother's rule. Through these same months 
Gu thrum, Oskytal, and the rest, are wintering at Rep- 
ton, after destroying; there the cloister where the 
kingly line of Mercia lie; disturbing perhaps the 
bones of the great Offa, whom Charlemagne had to 
treat as an equal. 

Neither of the pagan kings are inclined at this 
time to settle in Mercia; so, casting about what to 
do with it, they light on " a certain foolish man," a 
king's thane, one Ceolwulf, and set him up as a sort 
of King Popinjay. From this Ceolwulf they take 
hostages for the payment of yearly tribute (to be 
wrung out of these poor Mercians on pain of dethrone- 



ALFRED ON THE THRONE. 95 

ment), and for the surrender of the kingdom to them 
on whatever day they would have it back again. Fool- 
ish king's thanes, turned into King Popinjays by 
Pagans, and left to play at government on such terms, 
are not pleasant or profitable objects in such times 
as these of 1,000 years since — or indeed in any times 
for the matter of that. So let us finish with Ceol- 
wulf, just noting that a year or two later his pagan 
lords seem to have found much of the spoil of monas- 
teries, and the pickings of earl and churl, of folkland 
and bookland, sticking to his fingers, instead of find- 
ing its way to their coffers. This was far from their 
meaning in setting him up in the high places of Mer- 
cia. So they just strip him, and thrust him out, and 
he dies in beggary. 

This then is the winter's work of the great pagan 
army at Repton, Alfred watching them and their 
work doubtless with keen eye — not without misgiv- 
ings too at their numbers, swollen again to terrible 
proportions since they sailed away down Thames 
after Wilton fight. It will take years yet before the 
gaps in the fighting strength of Wessex, left by those 
nine pitched battles, and other smaller fights, will be 
filled by the crop of youths passing from childhood to 
manhood. An anxious thought that for a young king. 

The Pagans, however, are not yet ready for another 
throw for Wessex ; and so when Mercia is sucked dry 
for the present, and will no longer suitably maintain 
so great a host, they again sever. Halfdene, who 
would seem to have joined them recently, takes a 
large part of the army away from him northwards. 



96 ALFRED THE GREAT. 

Settling his headquarters by the river Tyne, he sub- 
dues all the land, and " ofttimes spoils the Picts and 
the Strath clyde Britons." Amongst other holy places 
in those parts, Halfdene visits the Isle of Lindisfarne, 
hoping perhaps in his pagan soul not only to commit 
ordinary sacrilege in the holy places there, which is 
every-day work for the like of him, but even to lay 
impious hands on, and to treat with indignity, the re- 
mains of that holy man, St. Cuthbert, of whom we 
have already heard, and who has become in due 
course patron and guardian saint of hunters, and of 
that scourge of Pagans, Alfred the West Saxon. If 
such were his thought, he is disappointed of his sac- 
rilege; for Bishop Eardulf and Abbot Eadred — de- 
vout and strenuous persons — having timely warning 
of his approach, carry away the sainted body from 
Lindisfarne, and for nine years hide with it up and 
down the distracted northern countries, now here, now 
there, moving that sacred treasure from place to place 
until this bitterness is overpast, and holy persons and 
things, dead or living, are no longer in danger, and 
the bodies of saints may rest safely in fixed shrines ; 
the pagan armies and disorderly persons of all kinds 
having been converted, or suppressed, in the mean- 
time. For which good deed, the royal Alfred (in 
whose calendar St. Cuthbert, patron of huntsmen, 
stands very high) will surely warmly befriend them 
hereafter, when he has settled his accounts with many 
persons and things. From the time of this incursion 
of Halfdene, ISTorthumbria may be considered once 
more a settled state ; but a Danish, not a Saxon one. 



ALFRED ON THE THRONE. 97 

The rest and greater part of the army, under Guth- 
rum, Oskytal, and Amund, on leaving Repton, strike 
south-east, through what was Landlord Edmund's 
country, to Cambridge, where, in their usual heathen 
way, they pass the winter of 875. 

7 



98 ALFRED THE GREAT. 



CHAPTER VIII. 



THE SECOND WAVE. 



The downfall, exile, and death of his brother-in- 
law in 874 must have warned Alfred, if he had any 
need of warning, that no treaty could bind these foe- 
men, and that he had nothing to look for but the same 
measure as soon as the pagan leaders felt themselves 
strong enough to mete it out to him and Wessex. In 
the following year we accordingly find him on the 
alert, and taking action in a new direction. These 
heathen pirates, he sees, fight his people at terrible 
advantage by reason of their command of the sea. 
This enables them to choose their own point of at- 
tack, not only along the sea-coast, but up every river 
as far as their light galleys can swim ; to retreat un- 
molested, at their own time, whenever the fortune of 
war turns against them; to bring reinforcements of 
men and supplies to the scene of action without fear 
of hindrance. His Saxons have long since given up 
their seafaring habits. They have become before all 
things an agricultural people, drawing almost every- 
thing they need from their own soil. The few foreign 
tastes they have are supplied by foreign traders. 



THE SECOND WAVE. 99 

However, if Wessex is to be made safe, the sea-kings 
must be met on their own element ; and so, with what 
expenditure of patience and money, and encouraging 
words and example we may easily conjecture, the 
young king gets together a small fleet, and himself 
takes command of it. We have no clue to the point 
on the south coast where the admiral of twentv-five 

1/ 

fights his first naval action, but know only that in 
the summer of 875 he is cruising with his fleet, and 
meets seven tall ships of the enemy. One of these he 
captures, and the rest make off after a hard fight — no 
small encouragement to the sailor king, who has thus 
for another year saved Saxon homesteads from devas- 
tation by fire and sword. 

The second wave of invasion had now at last gath- 
ered weight and volume enough, and broke on the 
king and people of the West Saxons. The year 876 
was still young when the whole pagan army, which 
had wintered at and about Cambridge, marched to 
their ships, and put to sea. Guthrum was in com- 
mand, with the other two kings, Anketel and Amund, 
as his lieutenants, under whom was a host as formid- 
able as that which had marched across Mercia through 
forest and waste, and sailed up the Thames five years 
before, to the assault of Reading. There must have 
been some few days of harassing suspense, for we 
cannot suppose that Alfred was not aware of the 
movements of his terrible foes. Probably his new 
fleet cruised off the south coast on the watch for 
them, and all up the Thames there were gloomy 
watchings, and forebodings of a repetition of the evil 

LofC. 



100 ALFRED THE GREAT. 

days of S71. But the suspense was soon over. Pass- 
ing by the Thames' mouth, and through Dover 
Straits, the pagan fleet sailed, and westward still past 
many tempting harbours and rivers' mouths, until 
they came off the coast of Dorsetshire. There they 
land at Wareham and seize and fortify the neck of 
land between the rivers Frome and Piddle, on which 
stood, when they landed, a fortress of the West Sax- 
ons and a monastery of holy virgins. Fortress and 
monasterv fell into the hands of the Danes, who set 
to work at once to throw up earthworks and otherwise 
fortify a space large enough to contain their army, 
and all spoil brought in by marauding bands from 
this hitherto im plundered country. This fortified 
camp was soon very strong, except on the western 
side, upon which Alfred shortly appeared with a body 
of horsemen, and such other troops as could be gath- 
ered hastily together. The detachments of the Pa- 
gans, who were already out pillaging the whole neigh- 
bourhood, fell back apparently before him, concen- 
trating on the Wareham camp. Before its outworks 
Alfred paused. He is too experienced a soldier now 
to risk at the outset of a campaign such a disaster as 
that which he and Ethelred had sustained in their 
attempt to assault the camp at Beading in 871. He 
is just strong enough to keep the Pagans within their 
lines, but has no margin to spare. So he sits down 
before the camp, but no battle is fought, neither he 
nor Guthrum caring to bring matters to that issue. 
Soon negotiations are commenced, and again a treaty 
is made. 




Alfred in the Danish camp.— Page 101. Alfred the Great. 



THE SECOND WAVE. 101 

On this occasion Alfred would seem to have taken 
special pains to bind his faithless foe. All the holy 
relics which could be procured from holy places in 
the neighbourhood were brought together, that he 
himself and his people might set the example of pledg- 
ing themselves in the most solemn manner known to 
Christian men. Then a holy ring or bracelet, smeared 
with the blood of beasts sacrificed to Woden, was 
placed on a heathen altar. Upon this Guthrum and 
his fellow kings and earls swore on behalf of the army 
that they would quit the King's country and give hos- 
tages. Such an oath had never been sworn by Dan- 
ish leader on English soil before. It was the most 
solemn known to them. They would seem also to 
have sworn on Alfred's relics, as an extra proof of 
their sincerity for this once, and their hostages " from 
amongst the most renowned men in the army " were 
dulv handed over. Alfred now relaxed his watch, 
even if he did not withdraw with the main body of 
his army, leaving his horse to see that the terms of the 
treaty were performed, and to watch the Wareham 
camp until the departure of the pagan host. But 
neither oath on sacred ring, nor the risk of their hos- 
tages, weighed with Guthrum and his followers when 
any advantage was to be gained by treachery. They 
steal out of the camp by night, surprise and murder 
the Saxon horsemen,, seize the horses, and strike 
across the country, the mounted men leading, to 
Exeter, but leaving a sufficient garrison to hold Ware- 
ham for the present. They surprise and get posses- 
sion of the western capital, and there settle down to 



102 ALFRED THE GREAT. 

pass the winter. Rollo, fiercest of the vikings, is said 
by Asser to have passed the winter with them in their 
Exeter quarters on his way to Normandy; but 
whether the great robber himself were here or not, 
it is certain that the channel swarmed with pirate 
fleets, who could put in to Wareham or Exeter at 
their discretion, and find a safe stronghold in either 
place from which to carry fire and sword through the 
unhappy country. 

Alfred had vainly endeavoured to overtake the 
march to Exeter in the autumn of 876, and failing 
in the pursuit, had disbanded his own troops as usual, 
allowing them to go to their homes until the spring. 
Before he could be afoot again in the spring of 877 
the main body of the Pagans at Exeter had made that 
city too strong for any attempt at assault, so the 
King and his troops could do no more than beleaguer 
it on the land side, as he had done at Wareham. But 
Guthrum could laugh at all efforts of his great an- 
tagonist, and wait in confidence the sure disbanding 
of the Saxon troops at harvest-time, so long as his 
ships held the sea. 

Supplies were soon running short in Exeter, but 
the Exe was open, and communications going on with 
Wareham. It is arranged that the camp there shall 
be broken up, and the whole garrison with their spoil 
shall join head-quarters. 120 Danish war-galleys are 
freighted, and beat down channel, but are baffled by 
adverse winds for nearly a month. They and all their 
supplies may be looked for any clay in the Exe when 
the wind changes. Alfred, from his camp before Ex- 



THE SECOND WAVE. 103 

eter, sends to his little fleet to put to sea. He cannot 
himself be with them as in their first action, for he 
knows well that Guthrum will seize the first moment 
of his absence to sally from Exeter, break the Saxon 
lines, and scatter his army in roving bands over 
Devonshire, on their way back to the eastern king- 
dom. The Saxon fleet puts out, manned itself as some 
say, partly with sea-robbers, hired to fight their own 
people. However manned, it attacks bravely a por- 
tion of the pirates. But a mightier power than the 
fleet fought for Alfred at this crisis. First a dense 
fog, and then a great storm came on, bursting on the 
south coast with such fury that the Pagans lost no 
less than 100 of their chief ships off Swanage ; as 
mighty a deliverance perhaps for England — though 
the memory of it is nearly forgotten — as that which 
began in the same seas 700 years later, when Drake 
and the sea-kings of the 16th century were hanging 
on the rear of the Spanish Armada along the Devon 
and Dorest coasts, while the beacons blazed up all 
over England, and the whole nation flew to arms. 

The destruction of the fleet decided the fate of the 
siege of Exeter. Once more negotiations are opened 
by the Pagans ; once more Alfred, fearful of driving 
them to extremities, listens, treats, and finally accepts 
oaths and more hostages, acknowledging probably in 
sorrow to himself that he can for the moment do no 
better. And on this occasion Guthrum, being caught 
far from home, and without supplies or ships, " keeps 
the peace well," moving as we conjecture, watched 
jealously by Alfred, on the shortest line across Devon 



104: ALFRED THE GREAT. 

and Somerset to some ford in the Avon, and so across 
into Mercia, where he arrives during harvest, and 
billets his army on Ceolwulf, camping them for the 
winter about the city of Gloster. There they run up 
huts for themselves, and make some pretence of per- 
manent settlement on the Severn, dividing large 
tracts of land amongst those who cared to take them. 

The campaigns of 876-7 are generally looked 
upon as disastrous ones for the Saxon arms, but this 
view is certainly not supported by the chroniclers. It 
is true that both at Wareham and Exeter the Pagans 
broke new ground, and secured their positions, from 
which no doubt they did sore damage in the neigh- 
bouring districts ; but we can trace in these years none 
of the old ostentatious daring, and thirst for battle 
with Alfred. Whenever he appears the pirate bands 
draw back at once into their strongholds, and, ex- 
hausted as great part of Wessex must have been by 
the constant strain, the West Saxons show no signs 
yet of falling from their gallant king. If he can no 
longer collect in a week such an army as fought at 
Ashdown, he can still, without much delay, bring to 
his side a sufficient force to hem the Pagans in and 
keep them behind their ramparts. 

But the nature of the service was telling sadly on 
the resources of the kingdom south of the Thames. 
To the Saxons there came no new levies, while from 
the north and east of England, as well as from over 
the sea, Guthrum was ever drawing to his standard 
wandering bands of sturdy ^Northmen. The most im- 
portant of these reinforcements came to him from an 



THE SECOND WAVE. 105 

unexpected quarter this autumn. We have not heard 
for some years of Hubba, the brother of Hinguar, the 
younger of the two vikings who planned and led the 
first great invasion in 868. Perhaps he may nave 
resented the arrival of Guthrum and other kings in 
the following years, to whom he had to give place. 
Whatever may have been the cause, he seems to have 
gone off on his own account, carrying with him the 
famous raven standard, to do his appointed work in 
these years on other coasts under its ominous shade. 

This " war-flag which they call raven " was a 
sacred object to the Northmen. When Hinguar and 
Hubba had heard of the death of their father, Regner 
Lodbrog, and had resolved to avenge him, while they 
were calling together their followers, their three 
sisters in one day wove for them this war-flag, in the 
midst of which was portrayed the figure of a raven. 
Whenever the flag went before them into battle, if 
they were to win the day the sacred raven would rouse 
itself and stretch its wings, but if defeat awaited 
them the flag would hang round its staff, and the 
bird remain motionless. This wonder had been 
proved in many a fight, so the wild Pagans who 
fought under the standard of Regner's children 
believed. It was a power in itself, and Hubba and a 
strong fleet were with it. 

They had appeared in the Bristol Channel in this 
autumn of 877, and had ruthlessly slaughtered and 
spoiled the people of South Wales. Here they pro- 
pose to winter ; but, as the country is wild mountain 
for the most part, and the people very poor, they will 
remain no longer than they can help. Already a large 



106 ALFRED THE GREAT. 

part of the army about Gloster are getting restless. 
The story of their march from Devonshire, through 
rich districts of Wessex yet unplundered, goes round 
amongst the new-comers. Guthrum has no power, 
probably no will, to keep them to their oaths. In the 
early winter a joint attack is planned by him and 
Hubba on the West Saxon territory. By Christmas 
they are strong enough to take the field, and so in 
mid-winter, shortly after Twelfth-night, the camp at 
Gloster breaks up, and the army " stole away to Chip- 
penham/' recrossing the Avon once more into Wes- 
sex, under Guthrum. The fleet, after a short delay, 
cross to the Devonshire coast, under Hubba, in thirty 
war-ships. 

And now at last the courage of the West Saxons 
gives way. The surprise is complete. Wiltshire is at 
the mercy of the Pagans, who, occupying the royal 
burgh of Chippenham, as head-quarters, overrun the 
whole district, drive many of the inhabitants " be- 
yond the sea for want of the necessaries of life," and 
reduce to subjection all those that remain. Alfred is 
at his post, but for the moment can make no head 
against them. His own strong heart and trust in God 
are left him, and with them and a scanty band of fol- 
lowers he disappears into the forest of Selwood, which 
then stretched away from the confines of Wiltshire 
for thirty miles to the west. East Somerset, now one 
of the fairest and richest of English counties, was 
then for the most part thick wood and tangled swamp, 
but miserable as the lodging is it is welcome for the 
time to the King. In the first months of 878, Sel- 
wood Forest holds in its recesses the hope of England. 



ATHELNEY. 1QT 



CHAPTEK IX. 



ATHELNEY. 



" Behold a King shall reign in righteousness, and princes shall 
rule in judgment. And a man shall be as an hiding-place 
from the wind, and a covert from the tempest ; as rivers 
of water in a dry place, as the shadow of a great rock in a 
weary land." 

At first sight it seems hard to account for the sud- 
den and complete collapse of the West Saxon power 
in January 878. In the campaign of the last year 
Alfred had been successful on the whole, both by 
sea and land. He had cleared the soil of Wessex 
from the enemy, and had reduced the pagan leaders 
to sue humbly for terms, and to give whatever hos- 
tages he demanded. Yet three months later the 
simple crossing of the Avon and taking of Chippen- 
ham is enough, if we can believe the chroniclers, to 
paralyse the whole kingdom, and to leave Alfred a fu- 
gitive, hiding in Selwood Forest, with a mere hand- 
ful of followers and his own family. But there is no 
doubt or discrepancy in the accounts. The Saxon 
Chronicle says, in its short clear style, that the army 
stole away to Chippenham during mid-winter, after 
Twelfth-night, and sat down there ; " and many of 



108 ALFRED THE GREAT. 

the people they drove beyond the sea, and of the 
rest the greater part they subdued and forced to 
obey them, except King Alfred ; and he with a small 
band with difficulty retreated to the woods and the 
fastnesses of the moors." Asser and the rest merely 
expand this statement in one form or another, leav- 
ing the main facts — the complete success of the blow, 
and the inability of Alfred at the moment to ward it 
off, or return it, or recover from it — altogether un- 
questioned. 

Some writers have thought to account for it by 
transposing a passage from Brompton, narrating 
obscurely a battle at Chippenham, and another at a 
place called Abendune, in both of which Alfred is 
defeated. This occurs in Brompton in the year 871, 
and, being clearly out of place there, has been seized 
on to help out the difficulty in the year 878. 

But there does not appear to be the least ground 
for taking this liberty with Brompton's text, nor 
even, if there were, is he a sufficiently sound authori- 
ty to rely upon for any fact which is not to be found 
in the Saxon Chronicle, or Asser. Nor indeed is 
there need of any such explanation when the facts 
come to be carefully examined. 

In the first place, this winter inroad on Chippen- 
ham was made at a time of year when even the 
vikings and their followers were usually at rest. 
Guthrum and his host fell upon the Wiltshire and 
Somersetshire men when they were quite unpre- 
pared, and before they had had time to hide away 
their wives and children or any provision of corn or 



ATHELNEY. 109 

beasts. Then the country was already exhausted. 
The Pagans, it is true, had not yet visited this part 
of Wessex, hut the drain of men must have been felt 
here, in the last eight years, as well as further east 
and south. We remark, too, that these West Saxons 
are the nearest neighbours of the Mercians, amongst 
whom a considerable body of the Danes had been 
now settled for some years. Paganism was rife 
again at Gloster, and no great harm seemed to come 
of it. These pagan settlers, though insolent and 
overbearing, still lived side by side with the Saxon 
inhabitants ; did not attempt to drive them out or 
exterminate them; left them some portion of their 
worldly goods. On the other hand, what hope is there 
in fighting against a foe who has nothing to lose but 
his life, whose numbers are inexhaustible. Might 
it not be better to make any terms with them, such, 
for instance, as our Mercian brethren have made ? 
This young king of ours cannot protect us, has spent 
all his treasure in former wars, has little indeed left 
but his name. Who is Alfred? and what is the race 
of Cerdic ? Know ye not that we are consumed ? 

Here, for the first time, in 878, we find traces of 
this kind of demoralization and of disloyalty to their 
king and land on the part of a portion of his people ; 
and the strong and patient soul of Alfred must have 
been wrung by an anguish such as he had not yet 
known, as he heard from his hiding-place of this 
apostasy. Here then our great king touches the 
lowest point in his history. So far as outward cir- 
cumstances go, humiliation can indeed hardly go 



110 ALFRED THE GREAT. 

further than this. Are we to believe the story that 
he had earned and prepared that humiliation for 
himself in those first few years of his reign between 
the autumn of 872, when the camp at Reading broke 
up, and the early spring of 876, when the pagan fleet 
appeared off Wareham ? The form in which this 
story comes down to us is in itself suspicious. It rests 
mainly on the authority of the " Life of St. Neot," a 
work of the next century, the author of which is not 
known ; but only thus much about him, that he was a 
monk bent on exalting the character and history of 
his saint, without much care at whose expense this 
was to be done. The passage in Asser, apparently 
confirming the statement, is regarded by all the best 
scholars as spurious, and indeed commences with a 
reference to the " Life of St. Keot," so that it could 
not possibly be of the same date as the rest of Asser's 
book, which was written during the King's lifetime. 
" The Almighty," so the anonymous author writes, 
" not only granted to this king glorious victories over 
his enemies, but also allowed him to be harassed by 
them, and weighed down by misfortunes and by the 
low estate of his followers, to the end that he might 
learn that there is one Lord of all things to whom 
every knee must bow, and in whose hand are the 
hearts of kings ; who puts down the mighty from 
their seat, and exalts them of low degree ; who suffers 
His servants, when they are at the height of good 
fortune, to be touched by the rod of adversity, that 
in their humility they may not despair of God's 
mercy, and in their prosperity may not boast of their 



ATHELNEY. HI 

honours, but may also know to whom they owe all 
they have. One may therefore believe that these 
misfortunes were brought on the King because in the 
beginning of his reign, when he was a youth and 
swayed by a youth's impulses, he would not listen to 
the petitions which his subjects made to him for help 
in their necessities, or for relief from their oppres- 
sors, but used to drive them from him and pay no 
heed to their requests. This conduct gave much pain 
to the holy man St. JsTeot, who was his relation, and 
often foretold to him in the spirit of prophecy that 
he would suffer great adversity on this account. But 
Alfred neither attended to the proof of the man of 
God, nor listened to his soothsaying. Wherefore, 
seeing that a man's sins must be punished, either in 
this world or the next, the true and righteous Judge 
willed that his son should not go unpunished in this 
world, to the end that He might spare him in the 
world to come. For this cause, therefore, King Al- 
fred often fell into such great misery that sometimes 
none of his subjects knew where he was or what had 
become of him." 

So writes the monkish historian, upon whose state- 
ment one remarks, that in the only place where it 
can be tested it is not accurate. The one occasion on 
which Alfred fell into such misery that his subjects 
did not know where he was, was in this January of 
878. We know that for many years before his acces- 
sion he was anxiously bent on acquiring knowledge, 
and in disciplining himself for his work in life, what- 
ever it might be. Patience, humility, and utter for- 



112 ALFRED THE GREAT. 

getfulness of self, the true royal qualities, shine out 
through every word and act of his life wherever we 
can get at them. Indeed, I think no one can be 
familiar with the authentic records of his words and 
works and believe that he could ever have alienated 
his people by arrogance, or impatience, or supercili- 
ousness. His would seem to be rather one of those 
rare natures which march through life without haste 
and without faltering; bearing all things, hoping all 
things, enduring all things, but never resting before 
the evil which is going on all round him, and of 
which he is conscious in his own soul. He may in- 
deed have alienated some nobles and official persons 
in his kingdom, by curbing vigorously, and at once, 
the powers of the aldermen and reeves. Indeed, it is 
said, that in one of those years he hanged as many 
as forty-four reeves for unjust judgments, even for. 
stretching the King's prerogative against suitors. 
No doubt, also, his demands on the people generally 
for military service, the building of ships, and restor- 
ing of fortified places, were burdensome, and may 
have caused some discontent. But there is no trust- 
worthy evidence, that I have been able to find, of any 
disaffection, nor does it need the suggestion of any 
such cause to account for the events of the winter of 
878. 

So much then for the monkish tradition of Al- 
fred's arrogant youth and its results. It cannot be 
passed over, but must be read by the light of his later 
life and work, as we have it in minute detail. 

The King then disappears in January 878 from 



ATHELNEY. 113 

the eyes of Saxon and Northmen, and we must fol- 
low him, by such light as tradition throws upon 
these months, into the thickets and marshes of Sel- 
wood. It is at this point, as is natural enough, that 
romance has been most busy, and it has become im- 
possible to disentangle the actual facts from monkish 
legend and Saxon ballad. In happier times Alfred 
was in the habit himself of talking over the events of 
his wandering life pleasantly with his courtiers, and 
there is no reason to doubt that the foundation of 
most of the stories still current rests on those con- 
versations of the truth-loving King, noted down by 
Bishop Asser and others. 

The best known of these is, of course, the story of 
the cakes. In the depths of the Saxon forests there 
were always a few neat-herds and swine-herds, scat- 
tered up and down, living in rough huts enough, we 
may be sure, and occupied with the care of the cattle 
and herds of their masters. Amongst these in Sel- 
wood was a neat-herd of the King, a faithful man, to 
whom the secret of Alfred's disguise was entrusted, 
and who kept it even from his wife. To this man's 
hut the King came one day alone, and, sitting him- 
self down by the burning logs on the hearth, began 
mending his bow and arrows. The neat-herd's wife 
had just finished her baking, and having other house- 
hold matters to attend, confided her loaves to the 
King, a poor tired-looking body, who might be glad 
of the warmth, and could make himself useful by 
turning the batch, and so earn his share while she 
got on with other business. But Alfred worked 
8 



114 ALFRED THE GREAT. 

away at his weapons, thinking of anything but the 
good housewife's batch of loaves, which in due course 
were not only done, but rapidly burning to a cinder. 
At this moment the neat-herd's wife comes back, 
and flying to the hearth to rescue the bread, cries 
out, " D'rat the man ! never to turn the loaves when 
you see them burning. I'ze warrant you ready 
enough to eat them when they're done." But besides 
the King's faithful neat-herd, whose name is not 
preserved, there are other churls in the forest, who 
must be Alfred's comrades just now if he will have 
any. And even here he has an eye for a good man, 
and will lose no opportunity to help one to the best 
of his power. Such an one he finds in a certain 
swine-herd called Denewulf, whom he gets to know, 
a thoughtful Saxon man, minding his charge there in 
the oak woods. The rough churl, or thrall, we know 
not which, has great capacity, as Alfred soon finds 
out, and desire to learn. So the King goes to work 
upon Denewulf under the oak trees, when the swine 
will let him, and is well satisfied with the results of 
his teaching and the progress of his pupil, as will 
appear in the sequel. 

But in those miserable days the commonest neces- 
saries of life were hard enough to come by for the 
King and his few companions, and for his wife and 
fami.y, who soon joined him in the forest, even if 
hey were not with him from the first. The poor 
foresters cannot maintain them, nor are this band of 
exiles the men to live on the poor. So Alfred and his 
comrades are soon out foraging on the borders of the 



ATHELNEY. 115 

forest, and getting what subsistence they can from 
the Pagans, or from the Christians who had sub- 
mitted to their yoke. So we may imagine them drag- 
ging on life till near Easter, when a gleam of good 
news comes up from the west, to gladden the hearts, 
and strengthen the arms, of these poor men in the 
depths of Selwood. 

Soon after Guthrum and the main body of the 
Pagans moved from Gloster, southwards, the Viking 
Hubba, as had been agreed, sailed with thirty ships 
of war from his winter quarters on the South Welsh 
coast, and landed in Devon. The news of the catas- 
trophe at Chippenham, and of the disappearance of 
the King, was no doubt already known in the west ; 
and in the face of it Odda the alderman cannot gather 
strength to meet the Pagan in the open field. But 
he is a brave and true man, and will make no terms 
with the spoilers; so, with other faithful thegns of 
King Alfred and their followers, he throws himself 
into a castle or fort called Cynwith, or Cynnit, there 
to abide whatever issue of this business God shall 
send them. Hubba, with the War-flag Raven, and a 
host laden with the spoil of rich Devon vales, appear 
in due course before the place. It is not strong nat- 
urally, and has only " walls in our own fashion," 
meaning probably rough earthworks. But there are 
resolute men behind them, and on the whole Hubba 
declines the assault, and sits down before the place. 
There is no spring of water, he hears, within the 
Saxon lines, and they are otherwise wholly unpre- 
pared for a siege. A few days will no doubt settle 



116 ALFRED THE GREAT. 

the matter, and the sword or slavery will be the 
portion of Odda and the rest of Alfred's men ; mean- 
time there is spoil enough in the camp from Devon- 
shire homesteads, which brave men can revel in 
round the war-flag Raven, while they watch the 
Saxon ramparts. Odda, however, has quite other 
views than death from thirst, or surrender. Before 
any stress comes, early one morning, he and his 
whole force sally out over their earthworks, and from 
the first " cut down the pagans in great numbers :" 
S40 warriors (some say 1,200), with Hubba himself, 
are slain before Cynnit fort; the rest, few in num- 
ber, escape to their ships. The war-flag Raven is left 
in the hands of Odda and the men of Devon. 

This is the news w T hich comes to Alfred, Ethel- 
noth the alderman of Somerset, Denewulf the swine- 
herd, and the rest of the Selwood Forest group, some 
time before Easter. These men of Devonshire, it 
seems, are still staunch, and ready to peril their lives 
against the pagan. No doubt up and down Wessex, 
thrashed and trodden out as the nation is by this 
time, there are other good men and true, who will 
neither cross the sea, or the Welsh marches, or make 
terms with the Pagan ; some sprinkling of men who 
will yet set life at stake, for faith in Christ and love 
of England. If these can only be rallied, who can 
say what may follow ? So, in the lengthening days of 
spring, council is held in Selwood, and there will 
have been Easter services in some chapel, or hermit- 
age, in the forest, or, at any rate, in some quiet glade. 
The " day of days " will surely have had its voice 



ATHELNEY. 117 

of hope for this poor remnant. Christ is risen and 
reigns ; and it is not in these heathen Danes, or in all 
the Northmen who ever sailed across the sea, to put 
back His kingdom, or enslave those whom He has 
freed. 

The result is, that far away from the eastern boun- 
dary of the forest, on a rising ground — hill it can 
scarcely be called — surrounded by dangerous 
marshes formed by the little rivers Thone and Par- 
ret, fordable only in summer, and even then danger- 
ous to all who have not the secret, a small fortified 
camp is thrown up under Alfred's eye, by Ethelnoth 
and the Somersetshire men, where he can once again 
raise his standard. The spot has been chosen by the 
King with the utmost care, for it is his last throw. 
He names it the Etheling's eig or island, " Athel- 
ney." Probably his young son, the Etheling of En- 
gland, is there amongst the first, with his mother and 
his grandmother Eadburgha, the widow of Ethelred 
Mucil, the venerable lady whom Asser saw in later 
years, and who has now no country but her daugh- 
ter's. There are, as has been reckoned, some two 
acres of hard ground on the island, and around vast 
brakes of alder-bush, full of deer and other game. 

Here the Somersetshire men can keep up constant 
communication with him, and a small army grows 
together. They are soon strong enough to make 
forays into the open country, and in many skir- 
mishes they cut off parties of the Pagans, and sup- 
plies. " For, even when overthrown and cast down," 
says Malmesbury, " Alfred had always to be fought 



118 ALFRED THE GREAT. 

with ; so then, when one would esteem him altogether 
worn down and broken, like a snake slipping from 
the hand of him who would grasp it, he would sud- 
denly flash out again from his hiding-places, rising 
up to smite his foes in the height of their insolent 
confidence, and never more hard to beat than after 
a flight." 

But it was still a trying life at Athelney. Fol- 
lowers came in slowly, and provender and supplies of 
all kinds are hard to wring from the Pagan, and 
harder still to take from Christian men. One day, 
while it was yet so cold that the water was still 
frozen, the King's people had gone out " to get them 
fish or fowl, or some such purveyance as they sus- 
tained themselves withal." No one was left in the 
royal hut for the moment but himself, and his 
mother-in-law Eadburgha. The King (after his con- 
stant wont whensoever he had opportunity) was 
reading from the Psalms of David, out of the Man- 
ual which he carried always in his bosom. At this 
moment a poor man appeared at the door and begged 
for a morsel of bread " for Christ His sake." Where- 
upon the King, receiving the stranger as a brother, 
called to his mother-in-law to give him to eat. Ead- 
burgha replied that there was but one loaf in their 
store, and a little wine in a pitcher, a provision 
wholly insufficient for his own family, and people. 
But the King bade her nevertheless to give the 
stranger part of the last loaf, which she accordingly 
did. But when he had been served the stranger was 
no more seen, and the loaf remained whole, and the 



ATHELNEY. 119 

pitcher full to the brim. Alfred, meantime, had 
turned to his reading, over which he fell asleep, and 
dreamt that St. Cuthbert of Lindisfarne stood by 
him, and told him it was he who had been his guest, 
and that God had seen his afflictions and those of his 
people, which were now about to end, in token where- 
of his people would return that day from their ex- 
pedition with a great take of fish. The King awak- 
ing, and being much impressed with his dream, 
called to his mother-in-law and recounted it to her, 
who thereupon assured him that she too had been 
overcome with sleep, and had had the same dream. 
And while they yet talked together on what had hap- 
pened so strangely to them, their servants came in, 
bringing fish enough, as it seemed to them, to have 
fed an army. 

The monkish legend goes on to tell that on the 
next morning the King crossed to the mainland in a 
boat, and wound his horn thrice, which drew to him 
before noon 500 men. What we may think of the 
story and the dream, as Sir John Spelman says, " is 
not here very much material," seeing that whether 
we deem it natural or supernatural, " the one as well 
as the other serves at God's appointment, by raising 
or dejecting of the mind with hopes or fears, to lead 
man to the resolution of those things whereof He has 
before ordained the event." 

Alfred, we may be sure, was ready to accept and 
be thankful for any help, let it come from whence it 
might, and soon after Easter it was becoming clear 
that the time is at hand for more than skirmishing 



120 ALFRED THE GREAT. 

expeditions. Through all the neighbouring counties 
word is spreading that their hero king is alive, and 
on foot again, and that there will be another chance 
for brave men ere long of meeting once more these 
scourges of the land, under his leading. 

A popular legend is found in the later chroniclers 
which relates that at this crisis of his fortunes, Al- 
fred, not daring to rely on any evidence but that of 
his own senses as to the numbers, disposition, and 
discipline of the pagan army, assumed the garb of a 
minstrel, and with one attendant visited the camp of 
Guthrum. Here he stayed, " showing tricks and 
making sport," until he had penetrated to the King's 
tents, and learned all that he wished to know. After 
satisfying himself as to the chances of a sudden 
attack he returns to Athelney, and the time having 
come for a great effort, if his people will but make it, 
sends round messengers to the aldermen and king's 
thegns of neighbouring shires, giving them a tryst 
for the seventh week after Easter the second week 
in May. 



ETHANDUNE. 121 



CHAPTEK X. 

ETHANDUNE. 

" Unto whom Fudas answered, It is no hard matter for many 
to be shut up in the hands of a few : and with the God of 
heaven it is all one to deliver with a great multitude or a 
small company. 

" For the victory of battle standeth not in the multitude of an 
host, but strength cometh from heaven. 

" They come against us in much pride and iniquity, to destroy 
us, and our wives and children, and to spoil us. 

" But we fight for our lives and our laws." 

On or about the 12th of May, 878, King Alfred 
left his island in the great wood, and his wife and 
children and such household gods as he had gathered 
round him there, and came publicly forth amongst 
his people once more, riding to Egbert's Stone (prob- 
ably Brixton), on the east of Selwood, a distance of 
26 miles. Here met him the men of the neighbour- 
ing shires — Odda, no doubt, with his men of Devon- 
shire, full of courage and hope after their recent 
triumph ; the men of Somersetshire, under their 
brave and faithful Alderman Ethelnoth; and the 
men of Wilts and Hants, such of them at least as 
had not fled the country or made submission to the 



122 ALFRED THE GREAT. 

enemy. " And when they saw their king alive after 
such great tribulation, they received him, as he mer- 
ited, with joy and acclamation." The gathering had 
been so carefully planned by Alfred and the nobles 
who had been in conference or correspondence with 
him at Athelney, that the Saxon host was organized, 
and ready for immediate action, on the very day of 
muster. Whether Alfred had been his own spy we 
cannot tell, but it is plain that he knew well what was 
passing in the pagan camp, and how necessary swift- 
ness and secrecy were to the success of his attack. 

Local traditions cannot be much relied upon for 
events which took place a thousand years ago, but 
where there is clearly nothing improbable in them 
they are at least worth mentioning. We may note, 
then, that according to Somersetshire tradition, first 
collected by Dr. Giles (himself a Somersetshire man, 
and one who, besides his Life of Alfred and other 
excellent works bearing on the time, is the author of 
the " Harmony of the Chroniclers," published by the 
Alfred Committee in 1852), the signal for the actual 
gathering of the West Saxons at Egbert's Stone was 
given by a beacon lighted on the top of Stourton 
Hill, where Alfred's Tower now stands. Such a 
beacon would be hidden from the Danes, who must 
have been encamped about Westbury, by the range of 
the Wiltshire hills, while it would be visible to the 
west over the low country towards the Bristol Chan- 
nel, and to the south far into Dorsetshire. 

Not an hour was lost by Alfred at the place of 
muster. The bands which came together there were 



ETHANDUNE. 123 

composed of men well used to arms, each band under 
its own alderman, or reeve. The small army he had 
himself been disciplining at Athelney, and training 
in skirmishes during the last few months, would 
form a reliable centre on which the rest would have 
to form as best they could. So after one day's halt 
he breaks up his camp at Egbert's Stone and marches 
to iEglea, now called Clay Hill, an important height, 
commanding the vale to the north of Westbury, 
which the Danish army were now occupying. The 
day's march of the army would be a short five miles. 
Here the annals record that St. !N"eot, his kinsman, 
appeared to him, and promised that on the morrow 
his misfortunes would end. 

There are still traces of rude earthworks round 
the top of Clay Hill, which are said to have been 
thrown up by Alfred's army at this time. If there 
had been time for such a work, it would undoubtedly 
have been a wise step, as a fortified encampment here 
would have served Alfred in good stead in case of a 
reverse. But the few hours during which the army 
halted on Clay Hill would have been quite too short 
time for such an undertaking, which, moreover, 
would have exhausted the troops. It is more likely 
that the earthworks, which are of the oldest type, 
similar to those at White Horse Hill, above Ash- 
down, were there long before Alfred's arrival in May 
878. After resting one night on Clay Hill, Alfred 
led out his men in close order of battle against the 
pagan host, which lay at Ethandune. There has 
been much doubt amongst antiquaries as to the site 



121 ALFRED THE GREAT. 

of Ethandune, but Dr. Giles and others have at 
length established the claims of Edington, a village 
seven miles from Clay Hill, on the north-east to be 
the spot where the strength of the second wave of 
pagan invasion was utterly broken, and rolled back 
weak and helpless from the rock of the West Saxon 
kingdom. 

Sir John Spelman, relying apparently only on the 
authority of Nicholas Harpesfeld's " Ecclesiastical 
History of England," puts a speech into Alfred's 
mouth, which he is supposed to have delivered before 
the battle of Edington. He tells them that the great 
sufferings of the land had been yet far short of what 
their sins had deserved. That God had only dealt 
with them as a loving Father, and was now about to 
succour them, having already stricken their foe with 
fear and astonishment, and given him, on the other 
hand, much encouragement by dreams and otherwise. 
That they had to do with pirates and robbers, who 
had broken faith with them over and over again ; and 
the issue they had to try that day was, whether 
Christ's faith, or heathenism, was henceforth to be 
established in England. 

There is no trace of any such speech in the Saxon 
Chronicle or Asser, and the one reported does not 
ring like that of Judas Maccabeus. That Alfred's 
soul was on fire that morning, on finding himself 
once more at the head of a force he could rely on, 
and before the enemy he had met so often, we may be 
sure enough, but shall never know how the fire 
kindled into speech, if indeed it did so at all. In 



ETHANDUNE. 125 

such supreme moments many of the strongest men 
have no word to say — keep all their heat within. 

Nor have we any clue to the numbers who fought 
on either side at Ethandune, or indeed in any of 
Alfred's battles. In the Chronicles there are only a 
few vague and general statements from which little 
can be gathered. The most precise of them is that in 
the Saxon Chronicle, which gives 840 as the number 
of men who were slain, as we heard, with Hubba 
before Cynuit fort, in Devonshire, earlier in this 
same year. Such a death-roll, in an action in which 
only a small detachment of the pagan army was en- 
gaged, would lead to the conclusion that the armies 
were far larger than one would expect. On the other 
hand, it is difficult to imagine how any large bodies 
of men could find subsistence in a small country, 
which was the seat of so devastating a war, and in 
which so much land remained still unreclaimed. But 
whatever the power of either side amounted to we 
may be quite sure that it had been exerted to the ut- 
most to bring as large a force as possible into line at 
Ethandune. 

Guthrum fought to protect Chippenham, his base 
of operations, some sixteen miles in his rear, and all 
the accumulated plunder of the busy months which 
had passed since Twelfth Night; and it is clear that 
his men behaved with the most desperate gallantry. 
The fight began at noon (one chronicler says at sun- 
rise, but the distance makes this impossible unless 
Alfred marched in the night), and lasted through 
the greater part of the day. Warned by many pre- 



126 ALFRED THE GREAT. 

vious disasters, the Saxons never broke their close 
order, and so, though greatly outnumbered, hurled 
back again and again the onslaughts of the North- 
men. At last Alfred and his Saxons prevailed, and 
smote his pagan foes with a very great slaughter, and 
pursued them up to their fortified camp on Bratton 
Hill or Edge, into which the great body of the fugi- 
tives threw themselves. All who were left outside 
were slain, and the great spoil was all recovered. 
The camp may still be seen, called Bratton Castle, 
with its double ditches and deep trenches, and bar- 
row in the midst sixty yards long, and its two en- 
trances guarded by mounds. It contains more than 
twenty acres, and commands the whole country side. 
There can be little doubt that this camp, and not 
Chippenham, which is sixteen miles away, was the 
last refuge of Guthrum and the great Northern army . 
on Saxon soil. 

So, in three days from the breaking up of his little 
camp at Athelney, Alfred was once more king of all 
England south of the Thames; for this army of 
Pagans shut up within their earthworks on Bratton 
Edge are little better than a broken and disorderly 
rabble, with no supplies and no chance of succour 
from any quarter. Nevertheless he will make sure 
of them, and above all will guard jealously against 
any such mishap as that of 876, when they stole out 
of Wareham, murdered the horsemen he had left to 
watch them, and got away to Exeter. So Bratton 
Camp is strictly besieged by Alfred with his whole 
power. 



ETHAKDUNE. 127 

Guthrum, the destroyer, and now the King, of 
East Anglia, the strongest and ablest of all the 
Northmen who had ever landed in England, is now 
at last fairly in Alfred's power. At Reading, Ware- 
ham, Exeter, he had always held a fortified camp, on 
a river easily navigable by the Danish war-ships, 
where he might look for speedy succour, or whence 
at the worst he might hope to escape to the sea. But 
now he, with the remains of his army, are shut up in 
an inland fort with no ships on the Avon, the nearest 
river, even if they could cut their way out and reach 
it, and no hopes of reinforcements over land. Half- 
dene is the nearest viking who might be called to the 
rescue, and he, in Northumbria, is far too distant. 
It is a matter of a few days only, for food runs short 
at once in the besieged camp. In former years, or 
against any other enemy, Guthrum would probably 
have preferred to sally out, and cut his way through 
the Saxon lines, or die sword in hand as a son of 
Odin should. Whether it were that the wild spirit 
in him is thoroughly broken for the time by the unex- 
pected defeat at Ethandune, or that long residence 
in a Christian land and contact with Christian sub- 
jects have shaken his faith in his own gods, or that 
he has learnt to measure and appreciate the strength 
and nobleness of the man he had so often deceived, 
at any rate for the time Guthrum is subdued. At the 
end of fourteen days he sends to Alfred, suing hum- 
bly for terms of any kind ; offering on the part of the 
army as many hostages as may be required, without 
asking for any in return; once again giving solemn 



128 ALFRED THE GREAT. 

pledges to quit Wessex for good; and, above all, de- 
claring his own readiness to receive baptism. If it 
had not been for the last proposal, we may doubt 
whether even Alfred would have allowed the ruthless 
foes with whom he and his people had fought so 
often, and with such varying success, to escape now. 
Over and over again they had sworn to him, and 
broken their oaths the moment it suited their pur- 
pose ; had given hostages, and left them to their fate. 
In all English kingdoms they had now for ten years 
been destroying and pillaging the houses of God, and 
slaying even women and children. They had driven 
his sister's husband from the throne of Mercia, and 
had grievously tortured the martyr Edmund. If 
ever foe deserved no mercy, Guthrum and his army 
were the men. 

When David smote the children of Moab, he 
" measured them with a line, casting them down to 
the ground ; even with two lines measured he to put 
to death, and with one full line to keep alive/' 
When he took Rabbah of the children of Amnion, 
" he brought forth the people that were therein, and 
put them under saws and under harrows of iron 
and under axes of iron, and made them pass 
through the brick-kiln." That was the old He- 
brew method, even under King David, and in the 
ninth century Christianity had as yet done little to 
soften the old heathen custom of " woe to the van- 
quished." Charlemagne's proselytizing campaigns 
had been as merciless as Mahomet's. But there is 
about this English king a divine patience, the rarest 



ETHANDUNE. 129 

of all virtues in those who are, set in high places. He 
accepts Guthrum's proffered terms at once, rejoicing 
over the chance of adding these fierce heathen war- 
riors to the Church of his Master, by an act of mercy 
which even they must feel. And so the remnant of 
the army are allowed to march out of their fortified 
camp, and to recross the Avon into Mercia, not quite 
five months after the day of their winter attack, and 
the seizing of Chippenham. The Northern army 
went away to Cirencester, where they stayed over the 
winter, and then returning into East Anglia settled 
down there, and Alfred and Wessex hear no more of 
them. Never was triumph more complete or better 
deserved; and in all history there is no instance of 
more noble use of victory than this. The West 
Saxon army was not at once disbanded. Alfred led 
them back to Athelney, where he had left his wife 
and children ; and while they are there, seven weeks 
after the surrender, Guthrum, with thirty of the 
bravest of his followers, arrive to make good their 
pledge. 

The ceremony of baptism was performed at Wed- 
more, a royal residence which had probably escaped 
the fate of Chippenham, and still contained a church. 
Here Guthrum and his thirty nobles were sworn in, 
the soldiers of a greater than Woden, and the white 
linen cloth, the sign of their new faith, was bound 
round their heads. Alfred himself was godfather to 
the viking, giving him the Christian name of Athel- 
stan ; and the chrism-loosing, or unbinding of the sac- 
ramental cloths, was performed on the eighth day by; 
9 



130 ALFRED THE GREAT. 

Ethelnoth, the faithful Alderman of Somersetshire. 
After the religious ceremony there still remained the 
task of settling the terms upon which the victors and 
vanquished were hereafter to live together side by 
side in the same island ; for Alfred had the wisdom, 
even in his enemy's humiliation, to accept the ac- 
complished fact, and to acknowledge East Anglia as 
a Danish kingdom. The Witenagemot had been 
summoned to Wedmore, and was sitting there, and 
with their advice the treaty was then made, from 
which, according to some historians, English history 
begins. 

We have still the text of the two documents which 
together contain Alfred and Guthrum's peace, or the 
Treaty of Wedmore; the first and shorter being 
probably the articles hastily agreed on before the 
capitulation of the Danish army at Chippenham, the 
latter the final terms settled between Alfred and his 
witan, and Guthrum and his thirty nobles, after 
mature deliberation and conference at Wedmore, but 
not formally executed until some years later. 

The shorter one, that made at the capitulation, 
runs as follows: — 

ALFRED AND GUTHRUM'S PEACE. 

" This is the peace that King Alfred, and King 
Guthrum, and the witan of ail the English nation 
and all the people that are in East Anglia, have all 
ordained and with oaths confirmed, for themselves 
and their descendants, as well for born as unborn, 
who reck of God's mercy, or of our«. 



ETHANDUNE. 131 

" First, concerning our land boundaries. These 
are up on the Thames, and then up on the Lea, and 
along the Lea unto its source, then straight to Bed- 
ford, then up the Ouse to Watling Street. 

" Then there is this : if a man be slain we reckon 
all equally dear, English and Dane, at eight half 
marks of pure gold, except the churl who dwells on 
gavel land and their leisings; they are also equally 
dear at 200 shillings. And if a king's thane be 
accused of manslaughter, if he desire to clear himself 
let him do so before twelve king's thanes. If any 
man accuse a man who is of less degree than king's 
thane, let him clear himself with eleven of his equals 
and one king's thane. And so in every suit which may 
be for more than four mancuses ; and if he dare not, 
let him pay for it threefold as it may be valued. 

Of Warrantors. 

"And that every man know his warrantor, for 
men, and for horses, and for oxen. 

" And we all ordained, on that day that the oaths 
were sworn, that neither bondman nor freeman 
might go to the army without leave, nor any of them 
to us. But if it happen that any of them from neces- 
sity will have traffic with us, or we with them, for 
cattle or goods, that is to be allowed on this wise: 
that hostages be given in pledge of peace, and as evi- 
dence whereby it may be known that the party has a 
clean book." 

By the treaty Alfred is thus established as king of 



132 ALFRED THE GREAT. 

the whole of England south of the Thames ; of all the 
old kingdom of Essex south of the Lea, including 
London, Hertford, and St. Albans; of the whole of 
the great kingdom of Mercia, which lay to the west 
of Watling Street, and of so much to the east as lay 
south of the Ouse. That he should have regained so 
much proves the straits to which he had brought the 
Northern army, who would have to give up all their 
new settlements round Gloster. That he should have 
resigned so much of the kingdom which had acknowl- 
edged his grandfather, father, and brothers as over- 
lords, proves how formidable his foe still was, even 
in defeat, and how thoroughly the north-eastern 
parts of the island had by this time been settled by 
the Danes. 

The remainder of the short treaty would seem 
simply to be provisional, and intended to settle the 
relations between Alfred's subjects and the army 
while it remained within the limits of the new Saxon 
kingdom. Many of the soldiers would have to break 
up their homes in Glostershire ; and, with this view, 
the halt at Cirencester is allowed, where, as we have 
already heard, they rest until the winter. While they 
remain in the Saxon kingdom there is to be no dis- 
tinction between Saxon and Dane. The were-gild, 
or life-ransom, is to be the same in each case for men 
of like rank; and all suits for more than four man- 
cuses (about twenty-four shillings) are to be tried 
by a jury of peers of the accused. On the other hand, 
only necessary communications are to be allowed 
between the Northern army and the people; and 



ETHANDUNE. 133 

where there must be trading, fair and peaceful deal- 
ing is to be ensured by the giving of hostages. This 
last provision, and the clause declaring that each 
man shall know his warrantor, inserted in a five- 
clause treaty, where nothing but what the contract- 
ing parties must hold to be of the very first impor- 
tance would find place, is another curious proof of 
the care with which our ancestors, and all Germanic 
tribes, guarded against social isolation — the doctrine 
that one man has nothing to do with another — a doc- 
trine which the great body of their descendants, 
under the leading of Schultze, Delitzsch, and others, 
seem likely to repudiate with equal emphasis in these 
latter days, both in Germany and England. 

Thus, in July 878, the foundations of the new 
kingdom of England were laid, for new it undoubt- 
edly became when the treaty of Wedmore was signed. 
The Danish nation, no longer strangers and enemies, 
are recognized by the heir of Cerdic as lawful owners 
of the full half of England. Having achieved which 
result, Guthrum and the rest of the new converts 
leave the Saxon camp and return to Cirencester at 
the end of twelve days, loaded with such gifts as it 
was still in the power of their conquerors to bestow : 
and Alfred was left in peace, to turn to a greater 
and more arduous task than any he had yet encoun- 
tered. 



134 ALFRED THE GREAT. 



CHAPTEK XL 



EETKOSPECT. 



" Whatsoever is brought on thee take cheerfully, and be patient 
when thou art changed to a low estate. For gold is tried 
in the fire, and acceptable men in the furnace of adversity." 

The great Danish invasion of England in the 
ninth century, the history of which we have just con- 
cluded, is one of those facts which meet us at every 
turn in the life of the world, raising again and again 
the deepest of all questions. At first sight it stands 
out simply as the triumph of brute force, cruelty, 
and anarchy, over civilization and order. It was 
eminently successful, for the greater part of the 
kingdom remained subject to the invaders. In its 
progress all such civilization as had taken root in the 
land was for the time trodden out ; whole districts 
were depopulated ; lands thrown out of cultivation ; 
churches, abbeys, monasteries, the houses of nobles 
and peasants, razed to the ground; libraries (such as 
then existed) and works of art ruthlessly burnt and 
destroyed. It threw back all Alfred's reforms for 
eight years. To the poor East Anglian, or West 
Saxon churl or monk who had been living his quiet 



RETROSPECT. 135 

life there, honestly and in the fear of God, according 
to his lights, — to him hiding away in the swamps of 
the forest, amongst the swine, running wild now for 
lack of herdsmen, and thinking bitterly of the sack 
of his home, and murder of his brethren, or of his 
wife and children by red-handed Pagans, the heavens 
would indeed seem to be shut, and the earth delivered 
over to the powers of darkness. Would it not seem 
so to us, if we were in like case ? Have we any faith 
which would stand such a strain as that? 

Who shall say for himself that he has? and yet 
what Christian does not know, in his heart of hearts, 
that there is such a faith, for himself and for the 
world — the faith which must have carried Alfred 
through those fearful years, and strengthened him to 
build up a new and better England out of the ruins 
the Danes left behind them ? For, hard as it must 
be to keep alive any belief or hope during a time 
when all around us is reeling, and the powers of evil 
seem to be let loose on the earth, when we look back 
upon these "days of the Lord " there is no truth 
which stands out more clearly on the face of history 
than this, that they all and each have been working 
towards order and life, that " the messengers of 
death have been indeed messengers of resurrection." 7 

In the case of our fathers, in the England of a 
thousand years ago, we have not to go far to learn 
what the Danes had to do for them. There is no 
need to accept the statements of later writers as to 
the condition of the Saxons and Angles at the time 
of the invasion. Hoveden, after dwelling on the 



136 ALFRED THE GREAT. 

wars which were so common between the several 
kingdoms in the eighth and early part of the ninth 
centuries, sums up, that in process of time all " vir- 
tue had so utterly disappeared in them that no nation 
whatsoever might compare with them for treachery 
and villany ; " and in John Hardyng's rhymed 
Chronicle we find : 

" Thus in defaute of la we and peace conserved 
Common profyte was wasted and devoured, 
Parcial profyte was sped and observed, 

And Venus also was commonly honoured — 
Among them was common, as the carte waye, 
Ryot, robbery, oppressyon, night and daye."' 

Such pictures are, no doubt, very highly coloured, 
and there is nothing in contemporary writers to jus- 
tify them ; nor can we believe that a nation in so 
utterly rotten a state would have met the Danes as 
the Angles and West Saxons did. But without going 
farther than Alfred's own writings, and the Saxon 
Chronicle and Asser, which contain, after all, the 
whole of the evidence at first hand which is left to 
us, we may see clearly enough that the nation, if not 
given over to " riot, robbery, and oppression, night 
and day," was settling on its lees. The country had 
become rich for those times under the long and 
vigorous rule of Egbert, and the people were busy 
and skilful in growing corn, and multiplying flocks 
and herds, and heaping up silver and gold. But the 
" common profyte " was more and more neglected, 
as " parcial profyte," individual gain, came to be the 
chief object in men's eyes. Then the higher life of 



RETROSPECT. 137 

the nation began to be undermined. The laws were 
unjustly interpreted and administered by hereditary 
aldermen, who by degrees became almost independ- 
ent of the king in their own shires and districts, in 
all matters not directly affecting his personal pre- 
rogative. The religious orders, who had been the pro- 
tectors and instructors of the people, were tainted 
as deeply as the laity with the same self-seeking 
spirit. Alfred, in his preface to Gregory's pastoral, 
speaks sorrowfully of the wise men who were found 
formerly throughout the English race, both of the 
spiritual and secular condition — how the kings, and 
they who then had the government of the folk, 
" obeyed God and His messengers, and maintained 
their peace, their customs, and their government at 
home, and also increased their country abroad, and 
sped well both in war and wisdom " — how the relig- 
ious orders were " earnest, both about doctrine and 
learning, and the services of God, so that men from 
abroad sought instruction in this land, which we 
must now get from them if we would have it." In 
Ethelwulf's reign both evils must have grown rap- 
idly, for he was careless of his secular duties, and 
left alderman, and reeve, and sheriff more and more 
to follow their own ways, while he fostered the worst 
tendencies of his clergy, encouraging them to become 
more and more priests and keepers of the conscience, 
and less shepherds and instructors of the people. So 
religion wasbeing separated from morality, and the 
inner and spiritual life of the nation was conse- 
quently dying out, and the people were falling into a 



138 ALFRED THE GREAT. 

dull, mechanical habit of mind. Their religion had 
become chiefly a matter of custom and routine ; and, 
as a sure consequence, a sensual and grovelling life 
was spreading through all classes. Soon material 
decay would follow, if it had not already begun ; for 
healthy, manly effort, honest and patient digging 
and delving, planting and building, is not to be had 
out of man or nation whose conscience has been put 
to sleep. When the corn and wine and oil, the silver 
and the gold, have become the main object of worship 
■ — that which men or nations do above all things 
desire — sham work of all kinds, and short cuts, by 
what we call financing and the like, will be the means 
by which they will attempt to gain them. 

When that state comes, men who love their coun- 
try will welcome Danish invasions, civil wars, potato 
diseases, cotton famines, Fenian agitations, whatever 
calamity may be needed to awake the higher life 
again, and bid the nation arise and live. 

That such visitations do come at such times as a 
matter of fact is as clear as that in certain states of 
the atmosphere we have thunderstorms. The thun- 
der-storm comes with perfect certainty, and as part 
of a natural and fixed order. We are all agreed upon 
that now. We all believe, I suppose, that there is an 
order, — that there are laws which govern the phy- 
sical world, asserting themselves as much in storm 
and earthquake as in the succession of night and day, 
of seed-time and harvest. We who are Christians 
believe that order and those laws to proceed from 
God, to be expressions of His will. Do we not also 



RETROSPECT. 139 

believe that men are under a divine order as much 
as natural things ? that there is a law of righteous- 
ness founded on the will of God, as sure and abiding 
as the law of gravitation ? that this law of righteous- 
ness, this divine order, under which human beings 
are living on this earth, must and does assert and 
vindicate itself through and by the acts and lives of 
men, as surely as the divine order in nature asserts 
itself through the agency of the invisible powers in 
earth and sea and air \ 

Surely Christianity, whatever else it teaches, at 
any rate assures us of this. And when we have made 
this faith our own, when we believe it, and not 
merely believe that we believe it, we have in our 
hand the clue to all human history. Mysteries in 
abundance will always remain. We may not be able 
to trace the workings of the law of righteousness in 
the confusions and bewilderments of our own day, 
or through the darkness and mist which shrouds so 
much of the life of other times and other races. But 
we know that it is there, and that it has its ground 
in a righteous will, which was the same a thousand 
years ago as it is to-day, which every man and nation 
can get to know ; and just in so far as they know and 
obey which will they be founding families, institu- 
tions, states, which will abide. 

If we want to test this truth in the most practical 
manner, we have only to take any question which has 
troubled, or is troubling, statesmen and rulers and 
nations, in our own day. The slavery question is one 
of the greatest of these. In the divine order that 



140 ALFRED THE GREAT. 

institution was not recognised, there was no place at 
all set apart for it ; on the contrary, He on whose will 
that order rests had said that He came to break every 
yoke. And so slavery would give our kindred in 
America no rest, just as it would give us no rest in 
the first thirty years of the century. The nation, 
desiring to go on living its life, making money, sub- 
duing a continent, 

" Pitching new states as old-world men pitch tents," 

tried every plan for getting rid of the " irrepressible 
negro " question, except the only one recognised in 
the divine order — that of making him free. The 
ablest and most moderate men, the Websters and 
Clays, thought and spoke and worked to keep it on 
its legs. Missouri compromises were agreed to, 
" Mason and Dixon's lines " laid down, joint com- 
mittees of both Houses — at last even a " crisis com- 
mittee," as it was called — invented plan after plan 
to get it fairly out of the way by any means except 
the only one which the eternal law, the law of right- 
eousness, prescribed. But He whose will must be 
done on earth was no party to Missouri compromises, 
and Mason and Dixon's line was not laid down on 
His map of North America. And there never were 
wanting men who could recognise His will, and de- 
nounce every compromise, every endeavour to set it 
aside, or escape from it, as a " covenant with death 
and hell." Despised and persecuted men — Garri- 
sons and John Browns — were raised up to fight this 
battle, with tongue and pen and life's blood, the 



RETROSPECT. 141 

weak things of this world to confound the mighty; 
men who could look bravely in the face the whole 
power and strength of their nation in the faith of the 
old prophet : " Associate yourselves and ye shall be 
broken in pieces; gather yourselves together and it 
shall come to nought, for God is with us." And at 
last the thunderstorm broke, and when it cleared 
away the law of righteousness had asserted itself 
once again, and the nation was delivered. 

And so it has been, and is, and will be to the end 
t)f time with all nations. We have all our " irre- 
pressible " questions of one kind or another, more or 
less urgent, rising up again and again to torment and 
baffle us, refusing to give us any peace until they 
have been settled in accordance with the law of right- 
eousness, which is the will of God. No clever hand- 
ling of them will put them to rest. Such work will 
not last. If we have wisdom and faith enough 
amongst us to ascertain and do that will, we may 
settle them for ourselves in clear skies. If not, the 
clouds will gather, the atmosphere grow heavy, and 
the storm break in due course, and they will be 
settled for us in ways which we least expect or desire, 
for it is " the Lord's controversy." 

In due course ! perhaps ; but what if this due 
course means lifetimes, centuries ? Alas ! this is 
indeed the cry which has been going up from the 
poor earth these thousands of years — 

" The priests and the rulers are swift to wrong, 
And the mills of God are slow to grind." 



14:2 ALFRED THE GREAT. 

How long, O Lord, how long? The preeise times 
and seasons man shall never know on this earth. 
These the Lord has kept in His own power. But 
courage, my brother ! Can we not see, the blindest 
of us, that the mills are working swiftly, at least in 
our day ? This is no age in which shams or untruths, 
whether old or new, are likely to have a quiet time or 
a long life of it. In all departments of human af- 
fairs — religious, political, social — we are travelling 
fast, in England and elsewhere, and under the hand 
and guidance, be sure, of Him who made the world, 
and is able and willing to take care of it. Only let 
us quit ourselves like men, trusting to Him to put 
down whatsoever loveth or maketh a lie, and in His 
own time to establish the new earth in which shall 
dwell righteousness. 



THE KINGS BOARD OF WORKS. 143 



CHAPTER XII. 

THE KING'S BOARD OF WOEKS. 

" Except the Lord build the house, their labour is but lost 

that build." 
"Except the Lord keep the city, the watchman waketh but 

in vain." 

It is scarcely possible to exaggerate the amount 
and difficulty of the work which lay before Alfred 
there at Wedmore, when he had at last got fairly rid 
of Guthrum and the army, and was able to think 
about something else than prompt fighting. The 
witan was assembled there, and may probably have 
counselled their king on many parts of that work. 
We only know, that they considered and passed the 
Treaty of Wedmore, and forfeited the lands of cer- 
tain nobles who had been false to their oaths of alle- 
giance. The council would not have remained sitting 
a day longer than they could help, as it must have 
been already getting towards harvest-time. They 
left their king, still young in years, but old in expe- 
rience and thoughtfulness, to set about his work of 
building up the nation again as best it might please 
him. 



144 ALFRED THE GREAT. 

We cannot doubt that with Athelney and Ethan- 
dune fresh in his mind, and Guthrum's armv still 
undisbanded at Cirencester, his first thought and 
care will have been of the defence of the realm for 
the future, and one of his first acts to commence the 
restoration of the forts and strong places. Dr. Giles 
points out the striking contrast in these early wars 
between the Saxons and Danes in their skill in the 
erection and use of fortifications. Through the 
whole of these wars the former seem scarcely ever 
able to hold a town or fort, if we except Cynuit ; 
while the Danes never lose one. At the beginning of 
each vear of the war the chroniclers relate monot- 
onously, how the Pagans seize some town of strong 
place, such as Nottingham, Reading, Exeter, Chip- 
penham, apparently without difficulty, certainly 
with no serious delay ; but when once they are in it 
they are never dislodged by force. In the same way, 
none of their fortified camps, such as that at Ware- 
ham, were ever taken ; and the remains at Uffington 
Castle and Bratton Castle show how skilful they 
were in these military earthworks, and what for- 
midable places the crests of hills on the open downs 
became under their hands. Alfred never lost a hint, 
for he had a mind thoroughly humble, and therefore 
open to the reception of new truth; so in setting to 
work to restore the forts which had been destroyed 

1/ 

or damaged, we may be sure he profited by the les- 
sons of the great struggle. At what time, or in what 
order, the restoration took place, we have no hint. 
In this, as in almost all parts of Alfred's work, we 



THE KING'S BOARD OF WORKS. 145 

only know the results. How efficiently it was done, 
however, between the peace of Wedmore and the next 
great war, which broke out in 893, we may gather 
from the fact that the great leader of that invasion, 
Hasting, was never ab A e to take an important town 
or stronghold. 

That terrible viking, who for years had been the 
scourge of the French coasts, was in this same au- 
tumn of 879 at Fulham. Dr. Pauli, who has 
remarkable sagacity in suggesting what the short 
vague notices in the Chronicles really mean, thinks 
that Hasting had been with Guthrum both at Ethan- 
dune and Chippenham, and from thence accom- 
panied the beaten army to Cirencester. That after 
the return of the Danish king and his thirty nobles 
from their baptism at Wedmore, he left the army, 
taking with him his own followers, and all those of 
the army who refused to become Christians, and 
with these sailed round the south coast, and up the 
Thames to Fulham. On the other hand, after such a 
lesson of the power wielded by Alfred, and his capac- 
ity as a leader, one must doubt whether so able a 
commander as Hasting would have been ready at 
once to open another campaign in Wessex. The 
Saxon Chronicle simply says that " a body of pirates 
drew together, and sat down at Fulham on the 
Thames ; " Asser, that " a large army of Pagans 
sailed from foreign parts into the river Thames, and 
joined the army which was already in the country." 
On the whole, it seems more probable that Hasting, 
or whoever was the leader of the Danes who wintered 
10 



146 ALFRED THE GREAT. 

at Fulham in this year, came from abroad, and was 
joined there by the wild spirits from Gruthrum's 
army, the resolute Pagans and pirates to whom 
peaceful life was thoroughly distasteful. The greater 
part of that army certainly never left Cirencester 
till the next spring, and remained faithful to the 
terms of the Treaty of Wedmore. So the Danes at 
Fulham, seeing no chance of rousing their country- 
men to another attempt on Alfred's crown and king- 
dom, and witnessing through the autumn and winter 
months the vigour with which the King was provid- 
ing for the defence of the country, sailed away to 
Ghent. And from this time, for upwards of four 
precious years, no band of Pagans landed on English 
soil, and the whole land had rest, and King Alfred 
leisure to turn to all the great reforms that he had 
in his mind. 

So, for one thing, the rebuilding and strengthen- 
ing of the fortresses all along the coast could now go 
on without hindrance. The whole of the bookland of 
England was held subject to the building of bridges 
and fortresses, and marching against an enemy, so 
that the whole manhood of the kingdom might have 
been at once turned upon this work. But Alfred had 
learned in the first years of his reign that his people 
would not well bear forcing; moreover, he had new 
ideas on the subject of building; was feeling his way 
towards the substitution of stone for wood-work, and 
importing the most skilled masons to be found on the 
Continent to instruct his own people. In his scrip- 
tural readings, too, he will have become acquainted 



THE KING'S BOARD OF WORKS. 147 

with the story of Solomon's buildings; how that 
wisest of monarchs, by the forced labour on his 
magnificent public works, exhausted the energies 
and alienated the affections of his people, an example 
to be carefully avoided by a Christian king. Such 
of the strong places, then, on the coast and elsewhere 
as belonged to the King himself, rose steadily with- 
out haste and without pause from their ruins, with 
all the newest improvements which the best foreigu 
workmen, or the experience of the late war, could 
suggest. At first it did not fare so well with those 
which had to be entrusted to others, and nothing can 
give us a more vivid impression of the dead weight of 
indifference and stupidity which Alfred had to con- 
tend against in his early efforts than the passage in 
Asser which speaks of this business, of restoring 
these fortified places. It occurs under the year 887, 
by which time it is plain, from the end of the pas- 
sage, that the King had triumphed over all his dif- 
ficulties, and had inspired the officers in all parts of 
his kingdom with some of his own spirit and energy. 
" What shall I say," writes his faithful friend, " of 
the cities and towns which he restored, and of others 
which he built where none had been before 1 of the 
royal halls and chambers wonderfully erected by his 
command, with wood and stone? of the royal resi- 
dences, constructed of stone, removed from their old 
sites, and handsomely rebuilt under his direction in 
more suitable places ? " probably where they were 
less open to assaults, such as those which had taken 
Reading and Chippenham. " Besides the disease 



148 ALFRED THE GREAT. 

above mentioned, he was disturbed by the quarrels 
of his friends, who would voluntarily undergo little 
or no toil, though it were for the common need of 
the kingdom ; but he alone, sustained by the aid of 
Heaven, like a skilful pilot strove to steer his ship 
laden with much wealth into the safe and much- 
desired harbour, though almost all his crew were 
tired, and suffered them not to faint, or hesitate, 
though sailing amidst the manifold waves and eddies 
of this present life. For all his bishops, earls, nobles, 
favourite ministers and prefects, who, next to God 
and the king, had the whole government of the king- 
dom, as is fitting, continually received from him in- 
struction, respect, exhortation, and command — nay, 
at last, when they continued disobedient, and his 
long patience was exhausted, he would reprove them 
severely, and censure their vulgar folly and obsti- 
nacy ; and thus he directed their attention to his own 
will, and to the common interests of the kingdom. 
Owing, however, to the sluggishness of his people, 
these admonitions of the King were either not ful- 
filled, or begun late in the hour of need, and so fell 
out the less to the advantage of those who executed 
them. For I will say nothing of the castles which 
he ordered to be built, but which, being begun late, 
were never finished, because the enemy broke in upon 
them by sea and land, and, as often fell out, the 
thwarters of the King's will repented when it was too 
late, and were ashamed at their non-performance of 
his commands. I speak of repentance when it is too 
late," the good Bishop indignantly continues, " on 



THE KING'S BOARD OF WORKS. 149 

the testimony of Scripture, by which it appears that 
numberless persons have had cause for too much sor- 
row after many insidious evils have come to pass. 
But though by these means, sad to say, they may be 
bitterly afflicted and roused to sorrow by the loss of 
fathers, wives, children, ministers, servant-men, 
servant-maids, and furniture and household stuff, 
what is the use of hateful repentance, when 
their kinsmen are dead, and they cannot aid 
them, or redeem those who are captive from cap- 
tivity ? for they are not able even to assist those who 
have escaped, as they have not wherewith to sustain 
even their own lives. They repented, therefore, when 
it was too late, and grieved at their incautious neg- 
lect of the King's commands, and praised the King's 
wisdom with one voice, and tried with all their 
power to fulfil what they had before refused ; that is 
to say, the erection of castles, and other things gen- 
erally useful to the whole kingdom." 

A vivid picture, truly, of the state of things in 
England a thousand years ago, for all of which 
might we not without much research find parallels 
enough in our own day ? One would fain hope that 
we are not altogether without some equivalent in late 
years for that patient, never-faltering pressure of the 
King, sometimes lighting up into scathing reproof of 
the " vulgar folly and obstinacy " of many of those 
through whom he has to work. It is refreshing to 
find a bishop, fairly roused by these squabbles — this 
unreasoning sluggishness of men who called them- 
selves the King's friends, and should have been 



150 ALFRED THE GREAT. 

doing the work he had appointed them — denouncing 
the repentance of such, after the mischief has been 
done, as " hateful," not a worthy act at all, or one 
likely to deserve the approbation of God or the King, 
in this bishop's judgment. 

The reference to the " breaking in of the enemy 
by land and sea " upon the unfinished fortifications, 
must point to the years between 872 and 878 ; for 
from the date of the peace of Wedmore no 'strong 
place of the Saxons was taken during Alfred's life. 
It was not until 885 that the Northmen even ven- 
tured on any descent in force on the coast of Eng- 
land. In that year the army which had gathered 
round the band of old heathen rovers who followed 
Hasting from Fulham to Ghent in the spring of 880, 
and had been ravaging the banks of the Meuse and 
the Scheldt ever since, after wintering at Amiens, at 
last broke in two. One half, under a leader whose 
name has not come down to us, took to their ships, 
and, in their old form, stole up the Thames and Med- 
wav, and made a sudden dash at Rochester. But 
now for the first time they were completely foiled 
in their first onslaught. They could not storm the 
place, which was well fortified and gallantly held, so 
they threw up strong works before the gates, in hopes 
of taking the town by famine or storm before suc- 
cour could arrive. In this, however, they were soon 
undeceived. Alfred appeared promptly in Kent at 
the head of a strong force, and, without awaiting 
his attack, the Danes fled to their ships, leaving great 
spoil which they had brought with them from 



THE KING'S BOARD OF WORKS. 151 

Prance, including a number of horses and prisoners, 
in their fortified camp before Rochester Gate. And 
so they betake themselves to France again, having 
found this visit to England very decidedly unprof- 
itable. 

We may fairly conclude then, that by the year 
885 those provoking bishops, earls, nobles, favourite 
ministers, and prefects, had come to their senses, 
and had learnt to obey their king's commands, and 
to see that there was good reason for anything he 
might set them to work on. Thus, as the fruit of 
years of patient and steady pressure, at last Alfred 
has his forts in order, a chain of them all round the 
southern coast some say, and his royal residences and 
larger towns for the most part sufficiently protected 
against sudden attack, so far as walls and ditches 
will secure them. London only still lies in a misera- 
bly defenceless state, all the best parts in ruins, the 
respectable inhabitants fled across seas or into Wes- 
sex; and only a wild, lawless population, the sweep- 
ings of many nations and tribes, left to haunt the 
river side, picking up a precarious living, no one 
can tell how, and ready to join any band of marauders 
who might be making use of the deserted houses. 
The great city which had been almost able to stand 
alone, and assert its independence of Mercia or of 
any overlord, ever since Ethelwulf's time, has fallen 
to be a mere colony of 'long-shore men, gathering 
round changing bands of pirates. The city has been 
Alfred's ever since the Treaty of Wedmore, and he 
has been no doubt carefully considering what can be 



152 ALFRED THE GREAT. 

done, and preparing to deal with it; but it is an 
arduous and expensive undertaking, and has to wait 
till more pressing building operations — particularly 
the necessary coast defences — have been completed. 
At length in 886 all his preparations are made, 
and he marches on London with a sufficient force to 
deal with such organized bands of JSTorthmen as 
might for the time be holding it, and with the 'long- 
shore population. Ethelwerd's Chronicle speaks of 
a siege, and Huntingdon's of a ' great force of 
Danes,' who fled when the place was invested; but 
the Saxon Chronicle and Asser contain no hint, 
either of a siege, or of any organized force within 
the city. It is probable therefore that London sub- 
mitted to Alfred at once without a blow. Here, in 
what had been even in Roman times the great com- 
mercial capital of England, his splendid organizing 
talents had full scope during the year. The accounts 
in the best authorities agree entirely as to this work 
of 886. They are short and graphic. " In this year 
Alfred, King of the West Saxons, after the burning 
of cities and slaying of the people honourably rebuilt 
the city of London, and made it again habitable. 
He gave it into the custody of his son-in-law Ethel- 
red, alderman of Mercia ; to which king all the 
Angles and Saxons who before had been dispersed 
everywhere, or were in bondage under the Pagans, 
voluntarily turned, and submitted themselves to his 
dominion." The foreign masons and mechanics, of 
whom Alfred by this time had large numbers in his 
regular pay, made swift work with the rebuilding of 



THE KING'S BOARD OF WORKS. I53 

London; and within a few years, under Ethelred's 
rule, the city had regained its old pre-eminence. 
Saxons, Angles, and Danes thronged to it indiscrim- 
inately, the latter occupying their own quarters. A 
colony of them settled on the southern side of the 
river, and built Southwark (Syd virke, the southern 
fortification), where one of the principal thorough- 
fares, Tooley Street (a corruption of St. Olave's 
Street), still bears the name of the patron saint of 
Norway. On the northern side of the Thames also, 
to the west of the city, they established another settle- 
ment, in which was their chief burial-place, and 
named it St. Clement Danes. We may reckon the 
rebuilding and resettlement of London as the crown- 
ing act of the King's work as a restorer of the fenced 
cities of his realm, and have now to follow him, as 
well as the confused materials at our command will 
allow us, in other departments no less difficult to 
handle than this of the Board of Works, in which 
his wise and unflagging energy was bringing order 
out of chaos, and economizing and developing the 
great resources of his kingdom. 



154: ALFRED THE GREAT. 



CHAPTEE XIII. 

THE KING'S WAE OFFICE AND ADMIRALTY. 

" And I took the chief of your tribes, wise men and known, 
and made them heads over you, captains over hundreds, 
and captains over fifties, and captains over tens, and 
officers amongst your tribes." 

The restoration of all the old fortresses of the king- 
dom, and the building of a number of fresh ones, 
though apparently the work which Alfred thought 
of first, and pressed on most vigorously, was after all 
only a reform of second-rate importance compared 
with the reconstruction and permanent organization 
of his army and navy. This also he took in hand at 
once, going straight to the root of the matter, as in- 
deed was always the habit with this king, his whole 
nature being of a thoroughness which would never 
allow him to work only on the surface. 

It is by no means easy to understand the military 
organization of the West Saxons before Alfred's 
reign, if indeed they had anything that may be called 
an organization. That every freeman was liable to a 
call to arms whenever the country was threatened by 
an enemy, or the king was bent on invading his neigh- 



THE KING'S WAR OFFICE AND ADMIRALTY. 155 

hour's territory — and that the king had no force of 
his own, but was in the hands of his aldermen and 
earls, and obliged to rely on what force they could 
bring together — this seems clear enough, but unfor- 
tunately we have no means of knowing with any ac- 
curacy how the call was made, what were the penal- 
ties for disobeying it, or the conditions of service in 
the field, — whether the soldier received pay and ra- 
tions, or had to support himself. So far as we can 
gather from the meagre accounts of the wars in Ethel- 
wulf's and Ethelred's reign, and of Alfred's early 
campaigns, as soon as danger threatened the heredi- 
tary alderman of the shire nearest the point of attack 
summoned all freeholders within his jurisdiction, and 
took the field at once, while the king, through their 
aldermen, gathered troops in other shires, and brought 
them up to the scene of action as fast as he could. 
Thus in 861 the Aldermen Osric and Ethelwulf, with 
the men of Hants and Berks, fell at once upon the 
pillagers of Winchester without waiting for King 
Ethelbert; and again Ethelwulf, ten years later, in 
871, fights the battle of Englefield with the first di- 
vision of the Danish army from Heading, only three 
days after the arrival of the Pagans, before Ethel- 
red and Alfred can come up. More instances might 
be cited, if needed, to show that either the penalties 
on slackness in coming to muster were very sharp, 
or that the zeal of the West Saxons for fighting was 
of the strongest. As a rule, the men of the shire 
might evidently be relied on to meet the first brunt 
of attack. It is equally clear that these levies could 



156 ALFRED THE GREAT. 

not be depended upon for any lengthened time. They 
dwindled away after a few weeks, or months, on the 
approach of harvest or the failure in supplies, or zeal. 
In short, the system was practically, to a great extent, 
a voluntary one, and very uncertain in its operation, 
throwing altogether unfair burdens now on this dis- 
trict, now on the other, as the Pagans gained a forti- 
fied position in Berkshire, Dorsetshire, or Wiltshire. 

During his early campaigns Alfred must have seen 
the disadvantage at which he and the West Saxons 
were placed by this haphazard system, and have grad- 
ually matured the changes which he was now able to 
introduce. These were somewhat as follow. The 
whole fighting strength of the kingdom was divided 
into three parts or companies. Of these, one com- 
pany was called out, Asser says, and remained on 
duty, " night and day, for one month, after which 
they returned to their homes, and were relieved by 
the second company. At the end of the second month, 
in the same way, the third company relieved the sec- 
ond, who returned to their homes, where they spent 
two months," until their turn for service came round 
again. ~No military service was required of any man 
beyond three months in the year, so that during the 
three winter months neither of the three military 
companies was on duty. Of the company on duty 
for the time being, a portion was told off for the de- 
fence of the principal fortresses, and the remainder 
constituted a body-guard or standing army, moving 
about under arms with the King and court. 

This at least is the account which has come down 



THE KING'S WAR OFFICE AND ADMIRALTY. 157 

to us, but it is obviously incomplete or incorrect. It 
is quite impossible that a third of the fighting 
strength of the whole kingdom could have been con- 
stantly maintained under arms by Alfred. For, what- 
ever mav have been the case in the times of his father 

%J 

and brothers, there can be little doubt that he both 
maintained and paid his soldiers. This appears from 
his own writings, as well as from the chroniclers. 
After declaring that he had never much yearned after 
earthly power, the King goes on (in the interpolation 
in the seventeenth chapter of his translation of Boe- 
thius) : " Nevertheless I was desirous of materials for 
the work which I was commanded to perform ; that is, 
that I might honourably and fitly exercise the power 
which was entrusted to me. Moreover, no man can 
show any skill, or exercise or control any power, 
without tools and materials ; that is, of every craft 
the materials without which man cannot exercise the 
craft. This, then, is a king's material, and his tools 
to reign with — that he have his land well peopled. 
He must have bead-men and soldiers and workmen; 
without these tools no king can show his craft. This 
is also his material that he must have as well as the 
tools — provision for the three classes. This is then 
their provision ; land to live on, and pay, and weapons 
and meat, and ale, and clothes, and whatsoever is 
necessary for the three classes. He cannot without 
these preserve the tools, or without the tools accom- 
plish any of those things which he is commanded to 
perform. Therefore I was desirous of materials 
wherewith to exercise the power, that my work and 



158 ALFRED THE GREAT. 

the report thereof should not be forgotten or hidden. 
For every craft and every power soon becomes old, 
and is passed over in silence, if it be without wisdom. 
Because whatsoever is done through folly no one can 
ever reckon for craft. This I will now truly say, that 
while I have lived I have striven to live worthily, 
and after my life to leave to the men who were after 
me my memory in good works." 

I could not touch the passage without quoting it 
whole; for, while treading on dangerous ground, it 
seems to me to vindicate " kinff-craft " as Alfred un- 
derstood and practised it, and to throw a gleam of 
light on his brave and pious life which we cannot 
spare. " King-craft " in the mouth of James I. 
meant the professional cleverness of the sovereign — 
that cunning, a substitute for courage, by which he, 
as king, could gain his selfish ends and exalt his of- 
fice, as he understood it. A contemptible, not to say 
hateful meaning, which the phrase has retained ever 
since in England. Alfred's idea of kingcraft is " a 
work which he is commanded to perform," which it 
is woe to him if he fail in performing. The two ideas 
are as wide apart as the character and work of the 
two kings. 

But the evidence does not rest on this passage. 
Asser, speaking of the division which the King made 
of his income, says that one-third of the part which he 
devoted to secular purposes went to pay his soldiers 
and ministers ; and Florence, that " he gave the first 
portion of his income yearly to his soldiers." Now, 
however highly we may be inclined to reckon Alfred's 



THE KING'S WAR OFFICE AND ADMIRALTY. 159 

income, it is quite impossible to suppose that one-sixth 
of it could have found weapons, meat, ale, and clothes, 
as well as pay, for anything like a third of his avail- 
able force. It is probable, then, that only a small 
part of the company whose turn it might be for ac- 
tive service were actually called out, and kept under 
arms, either with the court, or in the fortresses. 
These were paid by the King, while the remainder of 
the company were not paid, unless they too were ac- 
tually called out, though during their month they 
were no doubt constantly exercised, and kept in readi- 
ness to muster at any moment. 

It is not, however, of much importance, even if it 
were possible to ascertain the precise detail of Al- 
fred's military reforms. The essence and result of 
them is clear enough ; namely, that he had always a 
full third of his whole force ready to act against an 
enemy at a moment's notice, and that the burdens of 
military service were equally distributed over the 
whole kingdom. 

Side by side with the fortifications of his coast- 
towns, and the re-organization of his land-forces, the 
King pushed on with energy the construction of such 
a navy as would enable him to beat the Northmen on 
their own element. We have seen that, early in his 
first short interval of peace, he was busy with this 
work, having no doubt even then satisfied himself that 
his kingdom could only be effectually defended by 
sea. In 875 he puts to sea for the first time, and 
fights his first naval battle with success, taking one 
of the sea-king's ships. This will have given him a 



160 ALFRED THE GREAT. 

model upon which to improve the build of his own 
ships. He accordingly, in 877, " commands boats 
and long ships to be built throughout the kingdom, 
in order that he might offer battle by sea to the enemy 
as they were coming, and on board of these he placed 
seamen, and appointed them to watch the seas." The 
result of this wise foresight was the destruction of 
the Danish fleet off Swanage, on its way to the relief 
of Exeter. 

But the West Saxon ships were no better than the 
enemy's, until Alfred's practical sagacity and genius 
for mechanics were brought to bear on ship-building. 
The precise year in which the great reconstruction of 
his fleet was made is not ascertainable. The Saxon 
Chronicle places it as late as 897, but it will be con- 
venient to notice it here while we are on the subject. 
The vessels then which, after much study of the mat- 
ter, he ordered to be built, were twice as long and 
high as those of the Danes, and had forty, sixty, or 
in some instances even a larger number of oars. They 
were also, it is said, swifter and steadier than the 
older vessels, as well as longer and higher, and " were 
shapen neither like the Frisian nor the Danish, but 
so as it seemed to the King they would be most effi- 
cient." Alfred's galleys are perhaps less puzzling 
than the Greek trireme ; at the same time it is not easy 
to imagine how the account in the Chronicle can be 
correct. Galleys would naturally be slower in propor- 
tion to their height, though of course much more for- 
midable as fighting-vessels. The West Saxon was not 
a seafaring man ; at best was only inclined to go on 



THE KING'S WAR OFFICE AND ADMIRALTY. 161 

board ship for some definite and immediate piece of 
fighting, and the King's regular fleet was manned by 
sailors of many tribes, — Frisians, Franks, Britons, 
Scots, Armoricans ; even pagan Danes, who took ser- 
vice with him. And all these, of whatever race, " ac- 
cording to their merits, were ruled, loved, honoured, 
and enriched by Alfred." And in this department, 
as in his military reforms, results at once and abun- 
dantly justified his sagacity, for he was never badly 
worsted in a sea-fight, and towards the end of his 
reign his fleet had swept the coasts of England clear 
of the sea-rovers. 

Within two years after the peace of Wedmore the 
fleet was ready to go to sea, and it was not a day too 
soon. At no former time, indeed, were the western 
coasts of Europe more terribly scourged by the North- 
men. The great empire of Charlemagne, broken into 
weak fragments, was overrun by them. The army 
that had so recently left Eulham under the leader- 
ship of Hasting, reinforced by constant arrivals from 
Norway and Denmark, had left Ghent in 881, and 
laid waste the banks of the Meuse and the Scheldt. 
They were even now pressing southwards, and threat- 
ening Paris and Amiens. It is a time for vigilance 
and prompt action if the new kingdom is to be con- 
solidated in peace. One small squadron of the North- 
men, sweeping south, turn towards the English coasts 
in the hope of plunder, in the summer of 882, and 
find the King ready for them. Alfred himself goes 
to meet them; and of the four Danish vessels two 
were taken fighting and all hands killed, and the com- 
II 



162 ALFRED THE GREAT. 

manders of the remaining two surrendered after a 
desperate resistance. " They were sorely distressed 
and wounded," the Chronicle remarks, " before they 
surrendered." 

But the first occasion on which the new organiza- 
tion of the forces of the kingdom was put to any se- 
vere test was not until three years later, when the at- 
tempt on Rochester, already mentioned, was made. 
To understand the importance of it, we must go back 
to the time when Guthrum Athelstan crossed the Mer- 
cian borders, under solemn pledges to settle quietly 
down as undisputed king of East Anglia, under nom- 
inal allegiance, indeed, to his great conqueror, but 
practically as the equal sovereign of a friendly but 
independent kingdom. Unluckily for the good reso- 
lutions of the new convert, there was a tempter at his 
elbow. One Isembart, a near relative of Carloman, 
king of the Western Franks, had been exiled by that 
monarch, and had served with Guthrum in his last 
invasion of Wessex. He is bound for his own coun- 
try, where there are all manner of chances in these 
times for rebels; and the king of East Anglia, una- 
ble to resist the scent of battle and the chances of 
plunder, accompanies him with a force. After a 
short career of atrocities, Guthrum Athelstan is de- 
feated in a battle near Sancourt, and returns to East 
Anglia, having, on the one hand, roused Alfred's sus- 
picions, and on the other restored his own relations 
with Hasting and the Northern bands. During the 
next year or two settlements of pirates are allowed 
to establish themselves on the East Anglian coasts, 



THE KING'S WAR OFFICE AND ADMIRALTY. 163 

and before 885 several of the hostages given to Alfred 
after the battle of Ethandune had died, and their 
places remained unfilled. In short, there are the 
gravest reasons for Alfred to doubt the good faith, or 
the good-will, of Guthrum Athelstan and his people. 

At this crisis came the Danish descent on Kent 
and siege of Rochester, abandoned precipitately by 
the invaders on the prompt advance of Alfred. They 
fled to their ships and made off, some back to the 
French coast, and others across the Thames to Essex. 
Here they found shelter and assistance in Bemfleet 
and other places, which had become little better than 
nests of heathen pirates, without any hindrance, if 
not with the open sanction, of the ex-viking, now 
Christian king of East Anglia. Alfred's patience is 
now fairly exhausted, and, resolved to give his faith- 
less ally a severe lesson, he gathers a fleet at once in 
the Medway, puts troops on board, and sends them 
after the last division of the invaders, with orders to 
retaliate, or, as Asser puts it, " for the sake of plun- 
der." The West Saxon fleet soon fell in with sixteen 
Danish vessels, followed them up the Stour, and, af- 
ter a hard fight, took the whole of them, and put the 
crews to the sword. Had the King himself been on 
board, the success would most likely have been com- 
plete. As it was, the pirate communities of the East 
Anglian coast hastily got together another fleet, with 
which they attacked the King's fleet at the mouth of 
the river " while they were reposing," and gained 
some advantage over them. 

The Saxon Chronicle and Asser both add to the 



164 ALFRED THE GREAT. 

occurrences of the year that " the army which dwelt 
in East Anglia disgracefully broke the peace which 
they had concluded with King Alfred." Dr. Pauli 
also notices a visit of Hollo to East Anglia at this 
same time, the great viking having quitted the siege 
of Paris to answer the summons of his old comrade 
in arms. But the English chroniclers are silent on 
the subject, and it would seem that the cloud passed 
away without further hostilities. Alfred had every 
reason to be satisfied with the first trial and proof of 
his re-organized fleet and army, and had read the peo- 
ple of the East Anglian coast a lesson which they 
would not lightly forget. Guthrum Athelstan, for 
his part, may have either repented of his bad faith, 
and resolved to amend and live quietly, as we may 
hope, or had come to the conclusion, alone or in con- 
sultation with Hollo, that there is nothing but sure 
and speedy defeat to be gained by an open rupture 
with Alfred. In any case he took no active step to 
avenge the invasion of his kingdom, or to retaliate, 
and from that time lived peaceably to the day of his 
death in 890. 

" A prince, then," says Machiavelli (cap. xiv.), 
" is to have no other design, nor thought, nor study 
but war and the arts and disciplines thereof : for in- 
deed this is the only possession worthy of a prince, 
and is of so much importance that it not only pre- 
serves those that are born princes in their patri- 
monies, but advances men of private condition to that 
honourable degree." To which saying those who least 
admire the great Italian will agree to this extent, that 



THE KING'S WAR OFFICE AND ADMIRALTY. 165 

the arts and disciplines of war should form the main 
object of a prince's study until he has made his coun- 
try as safe against foreign attack as it can be made 
without dwarfing the nation's life. This is what Al- 
fred did for his kingdom and people, between the 
peace of Wedmore and the autumn of 885. His re- 
ward was profound peace for eight more years. 



166 ALFKED THE GBEAT. 



CHAPTER XIV. 



THE KING S LAWS. 



" Give the king Thy judgments, O God, and Thy righteousness 

unto the king's son. 
" Then shall he judge Thy people according to the right, and 

defend the poor." 

The king's next work after putting his kingdom in 
a state of defence, and to the best of his ability en- 
suring his people a safe country to live in, is to give 
them laws for the ordering and governing of their 
lives. 

This business of laying down rules as to how his 
English people shall be governed seems one of alto- 
gether startling solemnity and importance to Alfred ; 
and is, indeed, not a business which it is desirable 
that any king, or parliament, or other persons or 
bodies, should undertake lightly. It would be in- 
structive to inquire carefully how much of the trouble 
and misery which has come upon the land since his 
time has been caused by the want of Alfred's spirit 
in this matter of law-making. We have had at one 
time or another, during the past thousand years, as 
terrible experience as most nations of what strong 
men, or strong classes of men, can do in the way of 



THE KING'S LAWS. 167 

making laws to assert their own wills. The laws im- 
posing all sorts of religious disabilities, the combina- 
tion laws, the corn laws, are only some of the best 
known instances of attempts in this direction. The 
Statute-book is not yet clear of them, and who can 
hope that we have seen their end, though just at pres- 
ent there is happily no class strong enough to im- 
pose its own will on the nation ? Our sins just now 
in this matter of law-making are rather those of in- 
difference, or cowardice. Hand-to-mouth legislation, 
as it has been called — a desire to ride off on side is- 
sues, not to meet our difficulties fairly in the face, 
but rather to do such temporary tinkering as will just 
tide over the immediate crisis — is our temptation. 

Here, indeed, in our law-making, as in all other 
departments of human life, the loss of faith in God is 
bearing its fruit, and taking all nerve and tone out 
of our system. For that loss must be fatal to all high 
ideal, and without a high ideal no people will ever 
have or make good laws. Alfred has left us no doubt 
as to his. There is an order laid down from everlast- 
ing for the government of mankind, so he believes, 
which is the expression of the will of God, and to 
which man has to conform. He himself finds it about 
his path, and about his bed, established already on 
every side of him. He has become aware of it grad- 
ually, by the experience of his own life, through his 
own failures and successes. He has been educated by 
these into the knowledge that he, the King, is himself 
under a government, even the government of Him 
whose laws the material universe, all created things, 



168 ALFEED THE GREAT. 

obey, but whose highest empire is in the hearts and 
wills of men. Ruling and making laws are no light 
matter to one who has made this discovery; he can 
exercise neither function according to his own pleas- 
ure or caprice, or for his own ends. His one aim as 
a law-maker must be, to recognise and declare those 
eternal laws of God — as a ruler, to bring his own life, 
and that of his people, into accordance with them. 

Coming, then, to his task with this view, we find 
Alfred's code, or " Alfred's dooms," as they are 
called, starting with an almost literal transcript of 
the Decalogue. The only variations of any moment 
are, that the second commandment is omitted in its 
right place, and stands as the tenth (in the words of 
the 23d verse of the 20th of Exodus), "Work not 
thou for thyself golden gods or silver," and that in 
the fourth the Saxon text runs, " In six days Christ 
wrought the heavens and earth and all shapen things 
that in them are, and rested on the seventh day : and 
for that the Lord hallowed it." The substitution of 
Christ for the Lord here is characteristic of the King. 
Immediately after the ten commandments come se- 
lections from the Mosaic code, chiefly from the 21st, 
22d, and 23d chapters of Exodus, very slightly modi- 
fied. 

The most important variations are as follow: — 

Exodus xxi. Alfred's Dooms. 

1. Now these are the judg- 11. These are the dooms 

ments which thou shalt set that thou shalt set them :— 

before them. If any one buy a Christian 



THE KING'S LAWS. 



169 



2. If thou buy a Hebrew- 
servant, six years he shall 
serve, and in the seventh he 
shall go out free for nothing. 

3. If he came in by him- 
self, he shall go out by him- 
self : if he were married, 
then his wife shall go out 
with him. 

4. If his master have 
given him a wife, and she 
have born him sons or 
daughters ; the wife and 
her children shall be her 
master's, and he shall go out 
by himself. 

5. And if the servant 
shall plainly say, I love my 
master, my wife and my 
children ; I will not go out 
free: 

6. Then his master shall 
bring him unto the judges ; 
he shall also bring him unto 
the door, or unto the door- 
post, and his master shall 
bore his ear through with an 
awl, and he shall serve him 
for ever. 



bondsman, be he bondsman 
to him six years, the seventh 
be he free un bought. With 
such clothes as he went in, 
with such go he out. If he 
himself have a wife, go she 
out with him. If, however, 
the lord gave him a wife, go 
she and her bairn the lord's. 
If then the bondsman say, 
I will not go from my lord, 
nor from my wife, nor from 
my bairn, nor from my 
goods, let then his lord bring 
him to the church door, 
and drill through his ear 
with an awl, to witness that 
he be ever thenceforth a 
bondsman. 



The dooms continue an almost literary transcript 
of the 21st chapter of Exodus, with the exception of 
the lYth verse, which is omitted. The slight modifi- 
cations of the Hebrew Law in the first verses of the 
22d chapter are again characteristic. 



170 



ALFRED THE GREAT. 



Exodus xxn. 

1. If a man shall steal an 
ox or a sheep and kill it, or 
sell it, he shall restore five 
oxen for an ox, and four 
sheep for a sheep. 

2. If a thief be found 
breaking up, and be smitten 
that he die, there shall no 
blood be shed for him. 

3. If the sun be risen upon 
him, there shall be blood 
shed for him ; for he should 
make full restitution ; if he 
have nothing, then shall he 
be sold for his theft. 

4. If the theft be certainly 
found in his hand alive, 
whether it be ox, or ass, or 
sheep, he shall restore 
double. 

5. If a man shall cause a 
field, or a vineyard, to be 
eaten, and shall put in his 
beast, and shall feed in an" 
other man's field ; of the 
best of his own field, and of 
the best of his own vine- 
yard, shall he make restitu- 
tion. 



Alfred's Dooms. 

24. If any one steal an- 
other's ox, and slay or sell 
him, give he two for it, and 
four sheep for one. If lie 
have not what he may give, 
be he himself sold for the 
fee. 

25. If a thief break a 
man's house by night and 
be there slain, be he not 
guilty of manslaughter. If 
he doeth this after sunrise 
he is guilty of manslaughter, 
and himself shall die, unless 
he did it of necessity. If 
with him be found alive 
what he before stole, let him 
pay for it twofold. 

26. If any man harm an- 
other man's vineyard, his 
acres, or any of his lands, 
let him make boot as men 
value it. 



To the 8th verse, treating of property entrusted to 
another, Alfred's dooms add, " If it were live cattle, 
and he say that the army took it, or that it died of 
itself, and have witness, he need not pay for it. If 
he have no witness, and they believe him not, let him 



THE KING'S LAWS. 



171 



then swear." We shall see that the obligation of an 
oath, which had no sanction attached to it apparently 
by West Saxon law till now, is very carefully en- 
forced in a later part of the code. Alfred's dooms 
then omit from the 7th to the 15th verse of the chap- 
ter inclusive, taking all the rest ; with the variation, 
however, as to pledges, that the Saxons are to return 
a man's pledged garment before sunset only " if he 
have but one wherewith to cover him." 

The 3d and 6th verses of the 23d chapter are a 
puzzle to the King, so he substitutes dooms in his 
own language, which are certainly clearer than the 
Hebrew ones. 



Exodus xxin. 3, 6. 

3. Neither shalt thou 
countenance a poor man in 
his cause. 

6. Thou shalt not wrest 
the judgment of thy poor in 
his cause. 



Alfred's Dooms. 

43. Doom thou very 
evenly ; doom thou not one 
doom to the wealthy, an- 
other to the poor ; nor one 
doom to the more loved, 
other to the more loathed 
doom thou not. 



Alfred adopts the next three verses in the following 
form : — 



Exodus xxiii. 7, 8, 9. 

7. Keep thee far from a 
false matter, and the in- 
nocent and righteous slay 
thou not, for I will not 
justify the wicked. 

8. And thou shalt take no 
gift ; for the gift biindeth 



Alfred's Dooms. 

44. Shun thou aye leas- 
ings. 

45. A sooth fast man and 
guiltless, slay thou him 
never. 

46. Take thou never meed 
monies, for they blind full 



172 ALFRED THE GREAT. 

the wise, and perverteth oft wise men's thoughts, 
the words of the righteous. and turn aside their words. 
9. Also thou shalt not op- 47. To the stranger and 
press a stranger, for ye know comer from abroad , meddle 
the heart of a stranger, see- thou not with him, nor op- 
ing ye were strangers in the press thou him with no un- 
land of Egypt. right. 

Then, omitting all the rest of the Levitical law as 
given in this part of Exodus, as to cultivation of the 
land, the sabbatical year, sacrifices, and feasts, the 
dooms end with : — 

48. Swear ye never to heathen gods, nor in nothing call ye 
to them. 

The old Odin worship is not yet quite extinct in 
Wessex. 

Having finished his extracts from Exodus, in all 
forty-eight dooms, the King proceeds: — 

" These are the dooms that the Almighty God him- 
self spake to Moses, and bade him to hold ; and when 
the Lord's only-begotten Son, our God, that is, Christ 
the healer, on middle earth came, He said that He 
came not these dooms to break, nor to gainsay, but 
with all good to do, and with all mild-heartedness and 
lowly-mindedness to teach them. Then after His 
throes, ere that His apostles were gone through all 
the world to teach, and while yet they were together, 
many heathen nations turned they to God. While 
they all together were, they send errand-doers to An- 
tioch, and to Syria, Christ's law to teach. When they 
understood that they sped not, then sent they an 



THE KING'S LAWS. 173 

errand-writing to them." Then follows verbatim 
James' epistle from the Jerusalem council to the 
Church at Antioch; after which Alfred again goes 
on: " That ye will that other men do not to you, do 
ye not that to other men. From this one doom a man 
may think that he should doom every one rightly; he 
need keep no other doom-book. Let him take heed 
that he doom to no man that he would not that he 
doom to him, if he sought doom over him." 

So far it would seem that the King has no doubt, 
or need of consultation with any one. These are, in 
his view, the dooms which the Almighty God him- 
self has given to the king and people of England, as 
well as to the Hebrews of old. The remaining dooms 
stand on different ground. They are such as have 
been ordained by his forefathers and their wise men, 
with such additions and variations as he and his wise 
men approve. They are introduced thus: — 

" Since that time, it happened that many nations 
took to Christ's faith, and there were many synods 
through all the middle earth gathered, and eke 
throughout the English race they took to Christ's 
faith through holy bishops, and other wise men. They 
then set forth, for their mild-heartedness, that Christ 
taught as to almost every misdeed, that the worldly 
lords might, with their leave, without sin, for the 
first guilt, take their fee boot which they then ap- 
pointed, except for treason against a lord, to which 
they durst not declare any mildheartedness, for that 
the Almighty God doomed none to them that slighted 
Him, nor Christ, God's Son, doomed none to him 



174 ALFRED THE GREAT. 

that sold Him to death, and He bade to love a lord 
as himself." Nevertheless, Alfred and his witan, by 
the 4th article of their code, modify this of the 
synods, and place the king and lords on the same foot- 
ing as other freemen, by recognising the king's and 
lords' were-gild. " They then," the preface goes on, 
" in many synods set a boot for many misdeeds of 
men; and in many books they wrote here one doom, 
there another. 

" I then, Alfred the King, gathered these together, 
and bade to write manv of these that our forefathers 
held, those that to me seemed good : and many of 
those that seemed not good I set aside with my 
witan's council, and in other wise bade to hold them ; 
for that I durst not venture much of mine own to set 
in writing, for that it was unknown to me what of 
this would be acceptable to those that came after us. 
But those that I met with, either in my kinsman Ina's 
days, or in Offa's, king of Mercia, or in Ethelbryte's, 
that first of the English race took baptism, those that 
seemed to me the rightest I gathered them herein, 
and let the others alone. I then, Alfred, King of the 
West Saxons, showed these to all my witan, and they 
then said that they all seemed good to them to hold." 

Then followed the collected dooms, approved by 
Alfred and his witan, from other sources, and " Ina's 
dooms " by themselves, at the end of the code. We 
have only room for a few of those which best illus- 
trate the habits and society of the time. 

OF OATHS ASTD OF PLEDGES. 

" It is most needful that every man warily hold his 



THE KING'S LAWS. 175 

oath and his pledge. If any man is forced to either of 
these in wrong, either to treachery against a lord, or 
other unright help, it is better to belie than to fulfil. 
If he, however, pledge what it is right for him to 
fulfil, and belie that, let him give with lowly-minded- 
ness his weapon and his goods to his friends to hold, 
and be forty nights in prison in a king's town, and 
suffer there as the bishop assigns him; and let his 
kinsmen feed him if he himself have no meat. If he 
have no kinsmen, or no food, let the king's reeve feed 
him. If one should compel him, and he else will 
not, if they bind him let him forfeit his weapons and 
inheritance. If one slay him, let him lye without 
amends. If he flee out ere the time, and one take 
him, let him be forty nights in prison, as he should 
at first. If, however, he escape, let him be looked on 
as a runaway, and be excommunicate of all Christ's 
churches. If, however, another man be his surety, 
let him make boot for the breach of suretyship as the 
law may direct, and for the pledge-breaking as his 
confessor may shrive him." 

It is in this doom that imprisonment is first men- 
tioned in the Saxon laws. The doom for treason to 
which Alfred refers in his preface as the unpardon- 
able sin, and which in fact modifies that startling as- 
sertion, is, 

OF TREACHERY AGAINST A LORD. 

" If any one is treacherous about the king's life 
by himself, or by protecting outlaws, or their men, be 
he liable in his life, and in all that he owns. If he 



176 ALFRED THE GREAT. 

will prove himself true, let him do it by the king's 
were-gild. In like manner we also appoint for all 
ranks, both churl and earl. He that is treacherous 
about his lord's life, be he liable in his life and all 
that he owns, or by his lord's were prove him true." 

Sanctuary in churches is carefully regulated, and 
" church-frith " established ; that is to say, if a man 
seek sanctuary for any crime which has not come to 
light, and confess it in God's name, " be it half for- 
given." 

The settlement of the boot for offences against 
women form a prominent part of the code. From 
one of these dooms (8) it would seem that a nun 
might be married with the leave of the king or the 
bishop, as a fine of 120 shillings (half to go to the 
king, and half to the bishop and the lord of the con- 
vent) is inflicted for taking her without such leave. 

The care which our forefathers took to enforce the 
responsibility of the several sections of society for 
their individual members, may be well illustrated by 
the dooms as to " kinless men." " If a man kinless 
of father's kin fight, and slay a man, then if he have 
mother's kin, let them find a third of the were, his 
guild brethren a third, and for a third let him flee. 
If he have no mother's kin, let his guild brethren pay 
half, and for half let him flee. If a man slay a kin- 
less man, let half his were be paid to the king, half 
to his guild brethren." 

The scale by which the different classes of society 
were assessed may be gathered from the doom for 
housebreaking (40), by which burglary in the king's 



THE KING'S LAWS. 177 

house is fixed at one hundred and twenty shillings, in 
an archbishop's ninety shillings, a bishop's or alder- 
man's sixty shillings, a twelve hynde man's thirty 
shillings, a six hynde man's fifteen shillings, a churl's 
five shillings ; the boot being in each instance double 
if the offence is committed " while the army is out," 
or during Lent. In laws of earlier date the same 
penalties had been fixed for offences against the king 
and against bishops. Now the king has established 
his supremacy in every way. 

It has been said that Alfred and his witan first 
established a system of entail in England. There is 
no foundation for this statement except the doom, 
that if a man have inherited book-land " he must not 
give it from his kin, if there be writing or witness 
that it was forbidden by those that first gained it ; " 
a somewhat slender ground for the theory. 

But the strangest glimpse which we get through 
these laws of the state of society of a thousand years 
since is in the doom a3 to feuds. It is too long to 
quote, but in substance amounts to this: a man who 
has a feud with another may not fight him, if he finds 
him at home, without first demanding right of him ; 
even then, he may not fight him for seven days if 
he will remain within. If he come upon him abroad 
unawares, he may fight him if he will not give up 
his weapons ; if he will, then he must " hold him 
thirty nights and warn his friends of him " (proba- 
bly that they may ranson him, but this is not stated). 
A man may fight for his lord, and a lord for his man, 
without feud. He may also fight for his born kins- 
13 



178 ALFRED THE GREAT. 

man without fend, except against his lord, i( that we 
allow not." He may also without feud fight any 
man whom he finds insulting his wife, daughter, sis- 
ter, or mother. 

Holidays, or Massday Festivals, are provided for 
all freemen ; twelve days at Yule, " and the day that 
Christ overcame the devil, and St. Gregory's day 
(probably because of Alfred's reverence for Pope 
Gregory), and a fortnight at Easter, St. Peter's and 
St. Paul's days," in harvest the full week before St. 
Mary's mass, All-Hallows day, and four Wednesdays 
in the four Ember Weeks. Serfs or " theow men," 
however, do not fare so well, being left to " whatever 
any man give them for God's name." 

]STo less than thirty-three dooms are given up to 
the valuing of wounds of all kinds, the boots ranging 
from two shillings for a finger-nail, to eighty shillings 
for an arm, and one hundred shillings for the tendons 
of the neck. A man guilty of slander shall lose his 
tongue, or pay full were-gild. 

Amongst the dooms of " Ina my kinsman," which 
are appended to Alfred's, we may note that as to 
working on Sundays. If a theow work on Sunday by 
his lord's order, the lord must pay thirty shillings 
for wite ; if without his lord's order, " let him pay 
hide gild," or, in other words, be flogged. If a free- 
man work without his lord's order, he must forfeit 
his freedom, or pay sixty shillings, and a priest must 
forfeit double. 

A chance of escape is left, however, for the theow 
who has become liable to " hide gild " under the doom 



THE KING'S LAWS. 179 

on " Church scots : " " If any man forfeit his hide 
and run into a church, let the swingeing (whipping) 
be forgiven him." 

For the protection of forests it is enacted, that if 
any man burn a tree in a wood and it be found out, 
" let him pay full wite of sixty shillings, because fire 
is a thief; " but, if any one fell many trees in a wood, 
" let him pay for three trees, each with thirty shil- 
lings. He need not pay for more of them, however 
many there might be, because the axe is an informer, 
not a thief. But if any one cut down a tree under 
which thirty swine may stand, let him pay sixty shil- 
lings wite." 

The doom against lurking in secret places, already 
noticed, is re-enacted in a modified form : if any far- 
coming man, or stranger, journey through a wood out 
of the highway, and neither shout nor blow horn, he 
may be slain. 

By such dooms, then, did the King and his witan 
endeavour to weld into the everyday life of a rude 
people, accustomed to settle all disputes and diffi- 
culties by free fighting, that one governing doom of 
the whole code, " That ye will that other men do not 
to you, do ye not that to other men." It may be im- 
possible to suppress a smile at the strange company 
in which the golden rule finds itself in the code of 
Alfred and his wise men. The task was by no means 
an easy one, and they have, at any rate, the credit 
of putting it distinctly forward and doing their best 
upon it. Have any of our law-makers from that time 
to this aimed at a higher ideal, or worked it out more 



ISO ALFRED THE GREAT. 

honestly according to their lights? If so, let them 
cast the first stone at " Alfred's dooms." 

Mr. Thorpe supposes that the same code, with the 
dooms of OfTa, instead of those of Ina, appended, was 
passed by the witan of Mercia, and put in force in 
that country. The code was also modified for the 
new Danish kingdom of East Anglia. 



THE KING'S JUSTICE. 181 



CHAPTER XV. 



THE KING S JUSTICE. 



" And he set judges in the land, throughout all the fenced 
cities, city by city, and said to them, Take heed what ye 
do : for ye judge not for man, but for the Lord, and He is 
with you in the judgment." 

The one special characteristic of Englishmen, 
reverence for law and the constable's staff, if it had 
ever taken root at all in the country before Alfred's 
time, had disappeared during the life-and-death 
struggle with the Northmen. When " the army " 
left Mercia, and went to settle in their own country, 
the state of things which they left behind them in 
Wessex was lawless to the last degree. The severe 
penalties provided in Alfred's laws for brawling in 
the king's hall, or before aldermen in the mote, for 
distributing the folk-mote by weapon drawing, for 
fighting in the houses of freemen or churls, show 
what a pass things had come to. 

On the other hand, it is equally clear that this read- 
iness to appeal to the strong hand on all occasions was 
not altogether without justification, for the ordinary 
tribunals were fallen into utter disrepute, scarcely 
even attempting to do justice between man and man. 



182 ALFRED THE GREAT. 

The aldermen of the shires, hereditary rulers, re- 
sponsible indeed to the King, but for most practical 
purposes independent, were the chief judges, as well 
as the chief executive officers, of the kingdom. They 
had systematically neglected, and so had become ut- 
terly incompetent to fulfil, their judicial duties. 
There was scarcely an alderman who could read the 
text of the written laws in his own language, or who 
had any but the most superficial acquaintance with 
the common law, which was even then a precious in- 
heritance of the tribes of the great German stock. 
These judicial duties had consequently fallen into 
the hands of their servants, " vice-domini," and other 
inferior officers. How these and others carried mat- 
ters, and what sort of justice the people got under 
them, we may conjecture from the statement in An- 
drew Home's " Miroir des Justices," that Alfred had 
to hang fortv-four of them for scandalous conduct on 
the judgment-seat. One Cadwine was thus hanged, 
because on the trial of Hachwy for his life he first 
put himself on the jury, and then, when three of the 
jury were still for finding a verdict of not guilty, re- 
moved these and substituted three others, against 
whom he gave Hachwy no right of challenge, and 
sentenced him to death on their verdict. Another, 
Freberne, was hanged for sentencing Harpin to death 
when the jury were in doubt, and would not find a 
verdict of guilty; and Segnar, because he condemned 
Elfe to death after he had been acquitted. Dr. Pauli 
and others have doubted this evidence, deeming such 
measures absolutely inconsistent with Alfred's char- 



THE KING'S JUSTICE. 183 

acter, and it is certainly difficult to believe that he 
would have so punished men for mistakes, as is the 
case with some of the forty-four cases cited in the 
" Miroir des Justices." But I own it seems to me 
that Cadwine and Freberne most thoroughly deserved 
hanging, and that Alfred was just the king to have 
given them their deserts. Unfortunately, the treat- 
ise which he is said to have written " against unjust 
Judges," and his " reports of cases in his time " (acta 
magistratam suorum), which were extant it seems in 
Edward IWs reign, are lost. We can get no nearer 
the truth, therefore, on this particular question, but 
have the best evidence as to the thorough reform 
which he introduced in the whole administration of 
justice. 

The first and most important of his reforms was, 
the severance of the executive and judicial functions. 
But even this step was taken without haste, or injus- 
tice of any kind. It was only after patient sifting, 
and very gradually, that the aldermen and earls were 
superseded. The hard-handed, truculent, old war- 
riors, who had stood so stoutly by him through many 
a hard day's fighting, were dear to the King, and 
were treated by him with the utmost consideration, 
lie would give the chiefs who had led men at Ash- 
down, and Wilton, and Ethandune, every chance; 
would spend himself in the effort to make them equal 
to their duties ; would allow them to do anything, ex- 
cept injustice to God's poor, and his. Eor, as Asser 
testifies, " he showed himself a minute investigator 
of the truth in all his judgments, and this especially 



184 ALFRED THE GREAT. 

for the sake of the poor, to whose interests, day and 
night, among other duties of this life, he was ever 
wonderfully attentive. For in the whole kingdom 
the poor beside him had few or no protectors. For 
all the powerful and noble men of the nation had 
turned their thoughts to worldly rather than to heav- 
enly things, and each was bent more on his own profit 
than on the public good." 

There is, in the same author, a very characteristic 
account of Alfred's endeavour to educate his alder- 
men and earls as judges, which is for us full of 
humour, almost reaching pathos. Alfred, in all the 
early years of his reign, was in the habit of inquiring 
" into almost all the judgments which were given in 
his absence throughout all his realm, whether they 
were just or unjust. If he perceived there was in- 
iquity in those judgments, he would summon the 
judges, either himself, or through his faithful ser- 
vants, and ask them mildly why they had judged so 
unjustly — whether through ignorance or malevolence, 
whether for the love or fear of any, or hatred of 
others, or, also, for the desire for money." What 
happened in the latter case Asser does not tell us, but 
the " Miroir des Justices " may suggest. If, how- 
ever, " the judges acknowledged that they had given 
such judgments because they knew no better, he 
would discreetly and moderately reprove their inex- 
perience and folly in such words as these : ' I won- 
der, truly, at your rashness, that, whereas by God's 
favour and mine you have occupied the rank and of- 
fice of the wise, you have neglected the studios and 



THE KING'S JUSTICE. 185 

labours of the wise. Either, therefore, at once give 
up the discharge of these duties which you hold, or 
endeavour more zealously to study the lessons of wis- 
dom. Such are my commands.' At these words, the 
aldermen, earls, and prefects would tremble, and en- 
deavour to turn all their thoughts to the study of jus- 
tice; so that, wonderful to say, almost all his earls, 
prefects, and officers, though unlearned from their 
cradles, were sedulously bent on acquiring learning, 
choosing rather laboriously to acquire the knowledge 
of a new discipline than to resign their functions. 
But if any one of them, from old age or slowness of 
mind, were unable to make progress in liberal studies, 
the King commanded his son, if he had one, or one 
of his kinsmen, or, if there were no other person to 
be had, one of his own freedmen or servants whom 
he had before advanced to the office of reading, to re- 
cite Saxon books before him day and night, when- 
ever he had any leisure. Then these men would la- 
ment, with deep sighs in their inmost hearts, that in 
their youth they had never attended to such studies, 
and would bless the young men of our days who hap- 
pily could be instructed in the liberal arts, while they 
would execrate their own lot that they had not learned 
these things in their youth, and now, when they are 
old, though willing to learn them, they are unable." 
The stout old warriors, " sedulously bent on ac- 
quiring learning," there in the England of a thousand 
years ago, with one of the King's young freedmen — 
a kind of pupil-teacher, not without a dash of prig- 
gishness, we may fancy — reading to each of the most 



186 ALFRED THE GREAT. 

stolid of them day and night, so that they can scarcely 
eat or sleep in peace ! Before Bishop Asser, no doubt, 
they only " lamented with deep sighs," and " blessed 
the young men of our day ! ' : Those who have ever 
attended one of the schools started near some great 
railway work in our time for the navigators, may get 
some idea of the toil of those ancient aldermen, earls, 
prefects, and officers of Alfred's. There is something 
very touching in the struggle of a great strong man 
over his primer, and the blotted pot-hooks which he 
slowly stumps out on a tormented copy-book with his 
huge, horny hand. The aldermen generally, let us 
hope, came soon to the conclusion that presiding in 
courts of justice was not their true function. In any 
case it seems certain that Alfred effectually separated 
the judicial and executive duties of his officers, and 
appointed a set of judges whose functions coincided 
to some extent with those of our judges of assize : offi- 
cers who were sent through the shires to see that jus- 
tice was being done, and to overhaul and report on 
the decisions of the county courts. 

But when his new system had been established, a 
heavy burden still lay on the King. The old, disor- 
derly habits were not to be shaken off at once. The 
suitors often " perversely quarrelled in the courts of 
his earls and officers, to such an extent that hardly 
any one of them would admit the justice of what had 
been decided by the earls and prefects, and, in conse- 
quence of this pertinacious and obstinate dissension, 
all desired to have the judgment of the King, and 
both sides strove at once to gratify this desire." Thus 



THE KING - S JUSTICE. 187 

is was in suits where both plaintiff and defendant be- 
lieved in their own case. " But if any one was con- 
scious of injustice on his side in a suit, though by 
law or agreement he were compelled to go before the 
King, yet with his own good-will he never would con- 
sent to go. For he knew that in the King's presence 
no part of his wrong would be hidden, and no wonder, 
for the King was a most acute investigator when ap- 
pealed to to pass sentence; as he was in all other 
things." 

But reform in his law courts was only a small por- 
tion of Alfred's work. The old framework of society 
had been rudely shaken, and nothing short of a thor- 
ough re-organization would restore peace and order, 
and give his new courts and officers a fair chance. 
Accordingly the King set to work on the same princi- 
ple as had guided him in his law reforms. He has a 
strong conservative reverence for that which his fore- 
fathers have established, and will preserve it wher- 
ever possible. Thus he accepts the division of the 
kingdom into shires, which has sometimes been at- 
tributed to him, but which, it is certain, was much 
older than his day; but the boundaries of shires, 
hitherto uncertain, and varying from time to time, 
are now laid down precisely, after a general survey 
of the country, upon which it has been supposed that 
Domesday-book was founded. This survey was en- 
grossed and kept at Winchester, and called the Roll 
of Winchester. By it the shires, and their subdivi- 
sions of hundreds or wapentakes, were carefully set 
out, much as they remain to this day, as territorial 



188 ALFRED THE GREAT. 

divisions. Alfred gave each hundred its court, and 
there seems reason to believe that from this court of 
the hundred the first appeal lay to a court of the 
" try-thing," a district composed of several hundreds. 
There were generally, it is said, three trythings in 
every county, of which traces still remain in the ihree 
ridings of Yorkshire, the lathes of Kent, and the 
three districts of Lincolnshire, Lindesey, Kesteven, 
and Holland. The evidence, however, as to these 
" trythings " is weak, and does not affect any shire in 
Wessex proper, the old West Saxon kingdom. The 
hundreds again he subdivided into tythings, each of 
which was represented by a head-borough, or chief 
man of the tything. 

Every English householder then who claimed to 
be a " liege man," or one who was living according 
to law, was a member of a tything, and of a hundred, 
if living in the country, or of a guild if living in a 
town ; and householders had to keep " household 
rolls " of their servants. Thus, in one way or an- 
other, every man was recognised, caught hold of by 
the law, and taught his duties and obligations as a 
citizen. If there were a man who belonged to no 
hundred, tything, or guild, and whose name was on 
no household roll, he, it seems, would be held an out- 
law and common enemy, whose life and goods were 
at the mercy of any one who chose to take them, or, 
in the expressive phrase of the time, he " wore the 
wolfs head." 

Under this framework of hundreds and tythings a 
stringent system of suretyship was established. Thus 



THE KING'S JUSTICE. 189 

if a crime were committed within a tything, the head- 
borough had to undertake at once for the production 
of the criminal. If he escaped, the tything had a cer- 
tain number of days given them, within which he 
must be produced for trial. If they could not pro- 
duce him, the tything had yet a way of clearing them- 
selves. If the head-borough and two " chief pledges," 
or leading men of the tything in which the offence 
had been committed, could get the head-borough and 
two chief pledges of the three neighbouring tythings 
— twelve good men in all — to join with them in 
swearing that, in their conscience, the tything was in- 
nocent of any knowledge of, or privity with, the crime 
or the flight, the society was cleared. Otherwise the 
tything had to pay the fine awarded by law for the 
offence. This might be levied in the first instance 
on the goods of the culprit, but, on a failure of these, 
the balance had to be made up by a levy on the whole 
tything. Besides this, every member of the tything 
had to clear himself by oath of any privity with the 
fault or flight, and to swear that he would bring the 
culprit to trial whenever he could find him. 

The liability of a householder to answer for any 
stranger who might stop at his house has already 
been noticed. If such a stranger, merchant, or way- 
faring man, came to be suspected of any crime and 
could not be found, he whose guest he had last been 
was summoned to account for him. If he had not en- 
tertained the stranger for more than two nights, he 
might clear himself by oath ; but if the stranger had 
lodged with him three nights, he was bound to pro- 



190 ALFRED THE GREAT. 

duce him, or answer, and pay " were-gild," or 
" wide," for him, as for one of his own family. 

This mutual liability, or suretyship, was the pivot 
of all Alfred's administrative reforms. It was an old 
system known by the common name of frank-pledge, 
but now new life was put into it by the King, and in 
a short time it worked a very remarkable change in 
the whole of his kingdom. Merchants and others 
could go about their affairs without guards of armed 
men. The forests were emptied of their outlaws, 
kinless men, and Danes, and left to the neat-herds 
and swine-herds and their charges. Confidence and 
security succeeded to the distrust and lawlessness 
which had threatened the realm with hopeless an- 
archy at the end of the great war. Later chronicles 
such as Ingulf and Malmesbury, have preserved the 
stories which the English people used fondly to tell 
of the state of their country in the time of their hero 
king : how virgins might travel without fear of insult 
from one end of England to the other ; how if a way- 
farer left his money all night on the highway, he 
might come next day and be sure of finding it un- 
touched ; how the King himself tried the experiment 
of hanging up gold bracelets at cross-roads, and no 
man wished, or dared, to lay hands on them. The 
like stories had been current in earlier times of King 
Edwin, and were also told of Normandy under the 
rule of Rollo in these same years. We need not attach 
any undue weight to them, but the fact remains on 
evidence, which has been allowed to be trustworthy 
by competent students of all schools, that within the 



THE KING'S JUSTICE. 191 

lives of one generation Alfred converted the West 
Saxons from a lawless, brawling race of semi-bar- 
barians into a peaceable and law-abiding nation. 

This frank-pledge system, which was worked in 
the country districts through the local divisions of 
tythings and hundreds, was worked in the towns by 
the machinery of the guilds. There is no more inter- 
esting piece of social history than this of the Saxon 
guilds, but it is quite beyond our province here to 
touch upon it. All we are concerned with is the 
guild amongst the West Saxons at this precise 
period. They were institutions combining the 
objects of benefit clubs, insurance societies, and 
trades-unions. As a rule they were limited to mem- 
bers of one trade or calling, or at least to members of 
the same class of society ; for there were guilds of 
priests and thanes, as well as guilds of weavers and 
masons. The insurance extended to mutual support 
and maintenance during life, and to the costs of 
burial and of masses for the soul after death. This 
was the organization which the system of frank- 
pledge laid hold of, and probably developed, for the 
guilds in the times nearer the Norman conquest had 
extended so as sometimes to embrace all the citizens 
of a town in one society. Whatever the size of the 
guild might be, the king's officer, the town reeve, 
looked to the officers of the guild in his town, as the 
shire reeve looked to the head-borough of the tything 
in the county, for the production of offenders and the 
payment of were and wite. The political education 
of the whole people was thus carried on in shire and 



192 ALFRED THE GREAT. 

town, through the right of every freeman to attend 
the Great Council had necessarily fallen into abey- 
ance. The result is well summed up by Mr. Pear- 
son : — 

" What is essential to remember is, that life and 
property were not secured to the Anglo-Saxon by the 
State, but by the loyal union of his free fe.low- 
citizens : that honour and courage were expected 
from neighbours, as readily as amongst ourselves 
from the police, and that free co-operation secured 
the weak from the strong, provided for the destitute 
and orphan, and mitigated the ruinous losses against 
which no care can provide. The system may have 
been — must have been — imperfect in its workings. 
But the question is not one merely of material 
results : it is rather of moral education, and I believe 
the Saxon guilds are unmatched in the history of 
their times, as evidences of self-reliance, of mutual 
trust, of patient self-restraint, and of orderly love 
of law among a young people." 1 

The laws or customs of frank-pledge, enforced by 
courts-leet in every hundred, were undoubted-y what 
are now called heroic remedies. That they inter- 
fered with the individual freedom of the subjects of 
the king in a very real sense it is impossible to deny, 
but it is equally true that they did most effectually 

1 Pearson's " History of England during Early and Middle 
Ages," vol. i. p. 276. I am glad to take this opportunity of 
again owning my great obligations to this work. The chapters 
xvi. to xx. are quite invaluable studies of England and the 
English during the Anglo-Saxon period. 



THE KING'S JUSTICE. 193 

the work which they were meant to do, which I take 
to be the real test of remedial measures, heroic or 
humdrum. 

Sir John Spelman, looking round him at the con- 
fusions of the England of his day, mourns over the 
disuse of the courts-leet and the institution of frank- 
pledges, which used to be " the whole and sole admin- 
istration of justice criminal which was in the king- 
dom." " Had they been continued in practice/' the 
old knight thinks, " according to their ancient usage, 
they had been to this day not unprofitable to the 
commonwealth. For instance, the continual trouble 
and contention that is daily raised between town and 
town about the settling of people chargeable, or 
feared to be chargeable; the universal complaint of 
the licentiousness and unruliness of servants, who 
(for the liberty they now have of changing at their 
pleasure) will stay in no place, nor serve, but upon 
such conditions as to work and wages as is grievous 
to masters, and gives trouble to all the justices in the 
kingdom to regulate; the pester and annoyance of 
the kingdom with such a surcharge of vagrant and 
disorderly persons, that more and more now-a-days 
abound, and many other such like inconveniences, 
had all been avoided or in great part remedied by 
the observance of the law of frank-pledge." Still 
he owns that, in a commonwealth so increased as it 
was in his day, it would be in vain to attempt to 
bring it back. In an age of electric telegraphs and 
railways it would seem at first sight scarcely worth 
while to dwell upon it at all. &t the same time, 
13 



194: ALFRED THE GREAT. 

unless the world is essentially different from the 
world in which Alfred lived and reigned, and men 
and women are neither the children of, or kin to, 
the men and women over whom he ruled — which we 
have no reason for believing — there must be some- 
thing answering, or analogous, to this custom or 
institution of frank-pledge, which we might be all 
the better for getting at. Alfred had his problems 
of anarchy, widespread lawlessness, terrorism, to 
meet. After the best thought he could give to the 
business, he met them just thus, and prevailed. Like 
diseases call for like cures ; and we may assume with- 
out fear that a remedy which has been very success- 
ful in one age is at least worth looking at in another. 
We too, like Alfred, have our own troubles — our 
land-questions, labour-questions, steady increase of 
pauperism, and others. In our struggle for life we 
tight with different weapons, and have our advantages 
of one kind or another over our ancestors ; but when 
all is said and done there is scarcely more coherence 
in the English nation of to-day, than in that of 1079. 
Individualism, no doubt, has its noble side: and 
" every man for himself " is a law which works won- 
ders; but we cannot shut our eyes to the fact that 
under their action English life has become more and 
more disjointed, threatening in some directions al- 
together to fall to pieces. What we specially want 
is something which shall bind us more closely to- 
gether. Every nation of Christendom is feeling 
after the same thing. The need of getting done in 
some form that which frank-pledge did for Alfred's 



THE KING'S JUSTICE. 195 

people expresses itself in Germany in mutual-credit 
banks, open to every honest citizen ; in France, in the 
productive associations of all kinds ; in England and 
America in co-operative movement, and trade-unions. 

~No mere machinery, nothing that governments or 
legislatures can do in our day, will be of much help, 
but they may be great hindrances. The study of 
the modern statesman must be how to give such move- 
ments full scope and a fair chance, so that the people 
may be able without let or hindrance to work out in 
their own way the principle which Alfred brought 
practically home to his England, that in human so- 
ciety men cannot divest themselves of responsibility 
for their neighbors, and ought not to be allowed to 
attempt it. 

To recapitulate, then, shortly — the reforms which 
the King effected in the administration of justice, 
and what we may fairly call the resettlement of the 
country, were almost all adaptations or developments 
of what he found when he came to the throne. The 
old divisions of shires were carefully readjusted and 
divided into hundreds and tythings. The alderman 
of the shire still remained the chief officer, but the 
office was no longer hereditary. The King ap- 
pointed the alderman, or earl, of the shire, who was 
called the " king's alderman," or " comes." He was 
president of the shire gemot, or council, and chief 
judge of the country court, as well as governor of the 
shire, but was assisted, and probably controlled, in 
his judicial capacity, by justices appointed by the 
King, and not attached to the shire or in any way de- 



196 ALFRED THE GREAT. 

pendent on the alderman. The officers called in the 
Chronicles " vice-domini," who had come to be sim- 
ply the servants and nominees of the alderman, exer- 
cising indifferently judicial and executive functions, 
were abolished, and one officer substituted for them, 
the reeve of the shire, or sheriff. The sheriff was the 
king's officer, who carried out the decrees of the 
courts, levied the were-gild and other fines, and had 
generally the duty of seeing that the king's justice 
was promptly and properly executed ; but had no ju- 
dicial functions whatever. The hundreds and ty- 
things were represented by their own officers, and had 
their own hundred-courts, and courts-leet. These 
courts seem to have had some trifling criminal juris- 
diction, but were chiefly assemblies answering 
more to our grand juries, and parish vestries. 
All householders were members of them, and every 
man thus became directly responsible for keeping 
the king's peace. Through their officers — " head- 
boroughs," " borsholders," or by whatever other name 
they went — offenders were apprehended, fines levied, 
the army recruited ; in short, the whole civil business 
of the country transacted. A simple but effective 
organization for a commonwealth in the condition of 
the England of the ninth century, as was abundantly 
proved by the immediate results. The fact that 
much of it remains to our own day shows that it had 
worth in it for other and different times. 



THE KING'S EXCHEQUER. 197 



CHAPTER XVI. 

THE KING'S EXCHEQUER. 

" He becometh poor that dealeth with a slack hand, but the 

hand of the diligent maketh rich. 
" Let thy fountains be dispersed abroad, and rivers of waters 

in the streets. 
11 The liberal soul shall be made fat, and he that watereth 

shall be watered also himself." 

Of all the difficult questions which meet the stu- 
dent of King Alfred's life and times, there is none 
more puzzling than this of his exchequer. We have 
already passed in review a portion of the work which 
he managed to perform, and much yet remains for us 
to glance at. We know that he rebuilt the fortresses, 
created a navy composed of ships of a more costly 
kind than had yet been in use, and re-organized his 
army so as constantly to have one-third of the free- 
men capable of carrying arms ready for immediate 
service, and on full pay. Our own experience tells 
us that these are three as costly undertakings as any 
which a reforming king could take in hand. Where 
then did the necessary funds come from ? 

The rebuilding of fortresses, and marching against 



108 ALFRED THE GREAT. 

an enemy in the field, were indeed, as we have seen, 
two of the three duties to which all land granted to 
individuals was subject ; but this rule would scarcely 
seem to have included such fortresses as were royal 
property. These, which were undoubtedly very nu- 
merous, the King probably rebuilt at his own charges. 
In the same way, the military service which freemen 
were bound to render did not include garrison duty, 
or the three months' yearly training under arms, 
which Alfred enforced after the first great invasion of 
Wessex. The reconstruction of the fleet, too, was an 
unusual expense, which must probably have fallen 
on the King almost exclusively. Mr. Pearson says, 
" The church, the army, the fleet, the police, the poor- 
rates, the walls, bridges, and highways of the coun- 
try, were all local expenses, defrayed by tithes, by 
personal service, or by contributions among the 
guilds.'' But this statement can scarcely refer to so 
early a time as the ninth century ; and Alfred's own 
words, and the last and most authentic portion of As- 
ser's life, lead to the inference that much of the mil- 
itary cost of all kinds was borne by the King himself. 
To the outlay for these purposes, we must add the 
maintenance of his court, in a style of magnificence 
quite unusual before his time ; the payment of the 
army of skilled artificers which he collected, and of 
his civil officers and ministers ; the entertainment of 
strangers ; his foreign embassies ; his schools, the 
ecclesiastical establishments which he founded, en- 
dowed, or assisted ; and the relief of the poor. These 
must have amounted to very large sums annually; 



THE KING'S EXCHEQUER. 199 

while we should have expected that the sources of the 
King's wealth would have been almost dried up by the 
long and devastating wars. Alfred indeed himself 
states, in the preamble to his will, that he and his 
family had been despoiled of great part of their 
wealth " by the heathen folk." The fact, however, 
remains, that all these things were done out of the 
King's revenues, and there is no hint in chronicler, 
or law, or charter, that he ever oppressed his people 
by any such exactions, legal or illegal, as have gen- 
erally been enforced by magnificent monarchs, from 
Solomon downwards. 

To meet this expenditure, the King's income was 
derived from three sources : public revenue, crown 
lands, and his private property. The public revenue 
arose from several sources, amongst which we may 
reckon probably dues in the nature of customs, pay- 
able by merchants at the several ports of the kingdom, 
and tolls payable by persons trading at the king's 
markets, though the authentic notices of the payment 
of any such in Alfred's time are very meagre. Then 
the king succeeded to the lands of those who died kin- 
less, and probably to their goods if they were intes- 
tate. Treasure trove also belonged to him. But 
far more important than these must have been the rev- 
enue derived from the were-gild, and other fines im- 
posed by the laws for damage to person and property. 

The care with which these " boots " are fixed in 
Alfred's laws, in which the details of the compensa- 
tions awarded in such cases occupy the greater part 
of the code, would indicate the revenue from them to 



200 ALFRED THE GREAT. 

have been considerable. It will have been largest too 
at the time when it was most needed, in the first 
years of peace, before the old violent habits of the 
people had given way under the even and strong 
administration of the King. But even of this rev- 
enue the King only got a portion. For instance, the 
were-gild or compensation for manslaughter was (it 
seems) divisible into three portions: the first part 
only, or " frith-boot," was paid to the King for the 
breach of his peace ; the second part, or " man-boot," 
went to the lord as compensation for the loss of his 
man ; where the dead man had no lord, or was a for- 
eigner, two-thirds went to the King: the third part, 
called " mag " (or tribe) boot, or " ern gild " was 
paid to the dead man's family, as compensation for 
the injury caused to them by his loss. Of the re- 
maining boots, it is probable that the King got a less 
share of those inflicted for injuries to the person not 
ending fatally, as the claim of the sufferer in such 
cases would be paramount to any other; while of 
those inflicted for such offences as perjury, slander, 
brawling, he would probably take the greater part. 
Still, on the most extravagant estimate, the income 
arising from all these sources must have been very 
trifling when compared with the royal outgoings. 

The crown lands proper were no doubt of consid- 
erable extent and value, but there is little evidence 
to show of what they consisted. Reading, Dene, and 
Leonaford, are royal burghs mentioned in the Chron- 
icles which are not included amongst Alfred's devises 
and were probably crown lands. Alfred's own lands 



THE KING'S EXCHEQUER. 201 

or family estates, of which he was absolute owner, 
and able to dispose by his will, must have been very 
extensive. He had estates in every shire in Wessex, 
except that portion of Glostershire which was in- 
cluded in the old West Saxon kingdom. Perhaps, 
however, at the date of his will the whole of Gloster- 
shire might have been handed over to Ethelred the 
Alderman of Mercia, and the royal estates there given 
as part of Ethelwitha's dower. The royal properties 
la\ most thickly in Wilts, Hants, and Somerset, in 
which three shires we find upwards of twenty speci- 
fied in the will. Lands in Kent and Sussex are also 
devised so that there was no part of the new kingdom 
in which Alfred was not a large proprietor. But how 
these lands were cultivated, what part of the produce 
was sold and what forwarded in kind to meet the 
consumption of the court, and of that host of soldiers 
and mechanics for whom the King undertook to find 
bread and meat and beer, as one of the most im- 
portant of his royal functions, there is no evidence 
to show. 

But if we can do little but conjecture more or less 
confidently as to the sources or amount of Alfred's 
revenue, we know in remarkable detail how he spent 
it, from the account given in what Dr. Pauli and 
others consider the most authentic part of Asser's 
life. 

The good bishop's preamble to this portion of his 
work tells how the King, after the building and en- 
dowing of his monasteries at Athelney and Shaftes- 



202 ALFRED THE GREAT. 

bury, began to consider " what more he could do to 
augment and show forth his piety. That which he 
had begun wisely, and thoughtfully conceived for the 
public good, he adhered to with equally beneficial re- 
sult, for he had heard it out of the book of the law 
that the Lord had promised to restore him tenfold, 
and he knew that the Lord had kept his promise, and 
had actually restored him tenfold. Encouraged by 
which example, and wishing to outdo his predeces- 
sors in such matters, he vowed humbly and faithfully 
to devote to God half his services both day and night, 
and also half of all his wealth, such as lawfully and 
justly came annually into his possession. And this 
vow, as far as human judgment can discern, he skil- 
fully and wisely endeavoured to fulfil. But that he 
might, with his usual caution, avoid that which Scrip- 
ture warns us against, i if you offer aright, but do not 
divide aright, you sin/ he considered how he might 
divide aright that which he had vowed to God; and 
as Solomon had said, ' the heart or counsel of the 
king is in the hand of God/ he ordered with wise fore- 
sight, which could come only from above, that his 
officers should first divide into two parts the revenues 
of every year. When this division was made he as- 
signed the first half to worldly uses, and ordered that 
one-third of it should be paid to his soldiers, and also 
to his ministers and nobles who dwelt at court, where 
they discharged divers duties; for so the King's 
household was arranged at all times into three classes. 
His attendants were thus wisely divided into three 
companies, so that the first company should be on 



THE KING'S EXCHEQUER. 203 

duty at court for one month, night and day, at the end 
of which time they returned to their homes and were 
relieved hy the second company. At the end of the 
second month, in the same way, the third company 
relieved the second, who returned to their homes, 
where they spent two months, until their turn for 
service came again. The third company also gave 
place to the first, in the same way, and also spent two 
months at home. Thus was the threefold division 
of the companies arranged at all times in the royal 
household. To these, therefore, was paid the first 
of the three portions, to each according to their re- 
spective dignities and services; the second to the 
workmen whom he had collected from every nation, 
and had about him in large numbers, men skilled in 
every kind of construction ; the third portion was as- 
signed to foreigners, who came to him out of every 
nation far and near; whether they asked money of 
him or not he cheerfully gave to each with wonderful 
munificence, according to their respective merits, as 
it is written, ' God loveth a cheerful giver.' " 

" But the second part of his revenues, which came 
yearly into his possession, and was included in the 
receipts of the exchequer, as we mentioned above, 
he gave with ready devotion to God, ordering his 
ministers to divide it carefully into four parts. The 
first part was discreetly bestowed on the poor of every 
nation that came to him, and on this subject he said 
that, as far as human judgment could guarantee, the 
advice of Pope Gregory should be followed, .' Give- 
not much to whom you should give little, nor little to 



204 ALFRED THE GREAT. 

whom much, nor something to whom nothing, nor 
nothing to whom something.' The second of the four 
portions was given to the two monasteries which he 
had built, and to those who therein dedicated them- 
selves to God's service. The third portion was as- 
signed to the schools which he had studiously collected 
together, consisting of many of the nobility of his own 
nation. The fourth portion was for the use of all 
the neighbouring monasteries in all Saxony and Mer- 
cia, and also during some years, in turn, to the 
churches and servants of God dwelling in Britain, 
Cornwall, Gaul, Armorica, ISTorthumbria, and some- 
times also in Ireland ; according to his means he 
either distributed to them beforehand, or afterwards, 
if life and success should not fail him," meaning, 
probably, that the King, when he was in funds, made 
his donations to monasteries at the beginning of the 
financial year — if otherwise, at the end. 

The roundabout way in which the old churchman 
and scholar thus puts before us the picture of his 
truth-loving friend and king, preaching economy and 
order to his people by example, brings it home to us 
better than any modern paraphrase. Asser sees the 
good work going on under his eyes, the orderly and 
wise munificence, and the well-regulated industry of 
the King's household, giving tone to all the house- 
holds in the realm; nobles and king's thegns, justices, 
officers, and soldiers, coming up month by month, 
and returning to their own shires, wiser and braver 
and thriftier men for their contact with the wisest 
and bravest and thriftiest Englishman. Everything 



THE KING'S EXCHEQUER. 205 

prospers with him ; for all his outlay, Asser sees and 
writes : " the Lord has restored him tenfold." 

Rulers and workers the like of this king are indeed 
apt to get large returns. The things of this world 
acknowledge their master, and pour into his lap full 
measure, heaped up, and running over. But the ten- 
fold return brings its own danger with it, and too 
often the visible things bind the strong man. " This 
is also vanity, yea, it is sore travail. . . . When goods 
increase, they are increased that eat them ; and what 
good is there to the owners thereof saving the behold- 
ing of them with their eyes. . . . All the labour of 
man is for his mouth, and yet the appetite is not 
filled. . . . There is an evil which I have seen under 
the sun, and it is common among men. A man to 
whom God hath given riches, wealth, and honour, so 
that he wanteth nothing for his soul of all that he 
desireth, yet God giveth him not power to eat thereof, 
but a stranger eateth it: this is vanity, and it is an 
evil disease." So mourns the wise king who has 
bowed before the " tenfold return," and for whom his 
wealth has become a mere dreary burden. 

If we would learn how the Saxon king kept the 
dominion which the Hebrew king lost over the things 
which " the Lord was restoring him tenfold," we shall 
perhaps get the key best from himself. " Lord," Al- 
fred writes in his Anglo-Saxon adaptation from St. 
Augustine's " Blossom Gatherings," " Thou who hast 
wrought all things worthy, and nothing unworthy . . . 
to Thee I call, whom everything loveth that can love, 
both those which know what they love, and those 



206 ALFRED THE GREAT. 

which know not what they love: Thou who art the 
Father of that Son who has awakened and yet wakens 
us from the sleep of our sins, and warneth us that we 
come to Thee. For every one falls who flees from 
Thee, and every one rises who turns to Thee, and 
every one stands who abides in Thee, and he dies 
who altogether forsakes Thee, and he quickens who 
comes to Thee, and he lives indeed who thoroughly 
abides in Thee. Thou who hast given us the power 
that we should not despond in any toil, nor in any 
inconvenience, as is no wonder, for Thou well rulest, 
and makest us well serve Thee. . . . Thou hast well 
taught us that we may understand that that was 
strange to us and transitory which we looked on as 
our own — that is, worldly wealth ; and Thou hast also 
taught us to understand that that is our own which 
we looked on as strange to us — that is, the kingdom 
of heaven, which we before disregarded. Thou who 
hast taught us that we should do nought unlawful, 
hast also taught that we should not sorrow though our 
substance waned to us. . Thou hast loosed us from 
the thraldom of other creatures, and always preparest 
eternal life for us, and preparest us also for eternal 
life. . . . Hear me, Lord, Thy servant ! Thee alone 
I love over all other things ! Thee I seek ! Thee 
I follow ! Thee I am ready to serve ! Under Thy 
government I wish to abide, for Thou alone 
rcignest." 

A strange, incomprehensible, even exasperating 
kind of man, this king, to the temper and understand- 
ing of our day, which resents vehemently the ex- 
pression of any such faith as his. How often during 



THE KING'S EXCHEQUER. 207 

the last few years have we not heard impatient or 
contemptuous protest against the well-meaning per- 
haps, but shallow, and often vulgar, persons who are 
ashamed or afraid of doubt, and insist on using this 
sort of precise language about matters which will not 
bear it, of which nothing certain is, or can be, known. 
But they are for the most part poor creatures (when 
not parsons, and therefore tied to their professional 
shibboleths), fools or bigots, useless for this world 
and in their relations with visible things, where we 
can test them, whatever they may be as to any other, 
of which neither they or we can know anything. Do 
any of our best intellects, statesmen, scholars, scien- 
tific men — any of those who lead the thought and do 
the work of our time — talk thus % 

But this straightforward, practical English king, 
the hardest worker probably who ever lived in these 
islands, who was the first statesman, scholar, scientific 
man, of his day — who fought more pitched battles 
than he lived years, and triumphed over the most for- 
midable leaders Europe could produce in those wild 
times — who re-organized, and put new life into, every 
institution of his country, and yet attended to every 
detail of business like a common merchant — is pre- 
cisely the man who ought to have been free from this 
kind of superstition. It is a hard saying in the 
mouth of such a ruler of men, this of " Under Thy 
government I wish to abide, for Thou alone reignest." 
This can scarcely refer to the " tendency by which all 
men strive to fulfil the law of their being." What 
does it mean? 



20$ ALFRED THE GREAT. 



CHAPTEE XVII. 

THE KING'S CHURCH. 

" Is not the Lord your God with you ? and hath He not given 
you rest on every side ? Now set your heart and your soul 
to seek the Lord your God : arise, therefore, and build ye 
the sanctuary of the Lord God." 

" By the end of the seventh century/' says Mr. 
Freeman, " the independent insular Teutonic Church 
had become one of the brightest lights of the Chris- 
tian firmament. " The sad change which had come 
over her in the first half of the ninth century has al- 
ready been noticed. She had entirely ceased to be a 
missionary church, and even in the matter of learning 
had so deteriorated, that Alfred himself writes in his 
preface to the Anglo-Saxon version of Gregory's Pas- 
toral Care : " So clean was learning now fallen off 
amongst the English race, that there were very few on 
this side the Humber who were able to understand 
their service in English, or even to turn a written 
letter from Latin into English, and I think that there 
were not many beyond the Humber. So few there 
were of them, that I cannot think of even one on 
the south of the Thames when I first took to the 



THE KING'S CHURCH. 209 

kingdom." At the same time Alfred also remembers 
that when he was young he had seen, " ere all within 
them was laid waste and burnt up, how the churches 
throughout all the English race stood filled with 
treasures and books, also a great multitude of God's 
servants, though they knew very little use of these 
books, for that they could not understand anything 
of them." 

At the time of which Alfred is writing, the begin- 
ning of his own reign, it would seem too that the class 
from which hitherto the superior clergy, the monks 
and canons of the cathedrals and abbeys, had been 
recruited, had ceased to supply a sufficient number to 
fill up vacancies. Their places were being filled by 
the parochial clergy, or mass priest, who were of a 
much lower class socially. For the monks, with the 
exception of foreigners (of whom there had always 
been some in every considerable monastic institu- 
tion), were as a rule of the noble class, while the mass 
priests were taken from the class of ceorls, who were 
still indeed an independent yeomanry, and owners of 
their own land, but in other respects little removed 
from the servile class. That this lack of candidates 
for orders was felt before the first invasion appears 
from an incident which happened in the year 870, 
just before the first great invasion of Wessex and Al- 
fred's accession, and consequently before any cathe- 
dral or abbey in Wessex had been plundered or burnt. 
In that year, Ceolnoth, Archbishop of Canterbury, 
died, and " King Ethelred and Alfred his brother 
took Ethelred, Bishop of Winchester, and appointed 



210 ALFRED THE GREAT. 

him Archbishop, because formerly he had been a 
monk of that same minster of Canterbury." Now in 
Ceolnoth's time their had in one year been a great 
mortality in Canterbury amongst the monks, so that 
five only were left for the work of the Cathedral. 
He was obliged therefore to bring in some of " the 
priests of his vills, that they should help the few 
monks who survived to do Christ's service, because he 
could not so readily find monks who would of them- 
selves do that service." Nevertheless Ceolnoth had 
been always anxious to get rid of the mass priest, and 
the chronicler reports him as having said, " So soon 
as God shall give peace to this land, either these priests 
shall be monks, or from elsewhere I will place within 
the minster as many monks as may do the service of 
themselves." The speech was more probably Ethel- 
red's, who at any rate, as soon as he was established 
in the Archbishopric, took counsel how he might ex- 
pel the clerks that were therein. This however he 
could not effect, " for that the land was much dis- 
tressed by frequent battles, and there was warfare and 
sorrow all his time over England, so that the clerks 
remained with the monks," and he died in 888 with- 
out having accomplished his object. 

This state of things was of course made far worse 
by the war. That which was now the West Saxon 
kingdom contained at least five dioceses, besides that 
of Canterbury; of these Winchester, Sherborne, 
Wells, were the chief, all of which had been traversed 
and plundered at one time or another. The material 
prosperity had followed the higher life of the Church, 



THE KING'S CHURCH. 211 

and there was as much need of restoring the mere out- 
ward framework of churches and monasteries, as that 
of city walls and fortifications. 

To this the King turned his attention soon after the 
peace of Wedmore. We have heard already that of 
the half of his revenue which he dedicated to relig- 
ious uses, one-fourth was expended on the two mon- 
asteries of his own foundation, and another fourth on 
the monasteries in Wessex and the other English 
kingdoms. The erction of these two monasteries was 
the first ecclesiastical work he took in hand. The one 
for monks was built at Athelney, in fulfilment of a 
vow which he had made there during his residence on 
the island. A bridge " laboriously constructed " was 
now thrown over the morass, at the western end of 
which was erected a strong tower of beautiful work, 
to guard the approach. The monastery and outbuild- 
ings occupied the whole island, and being built be- 
fore the King had collected his army of artisans, was 
of wood, the church small, and supported on four 
strong pillars of wood, and surrounded by four 
smaller cells or chance's. 

But it was easier to build the monastery than to fill 
it as the King would wish it filled. " At first/' says 
Asser, " he had no one of his own nation, noble and 
free by birth, who was willing to enter the monastic 
life, except children, who could neither choose good 
or avoid evil, in consequence of their tender years. 
For during many previous years, the love of a mo- 
nastic life had utterly decayed from that nation, as 
well as from many other nations, though many mon- 



212 ALFRED THE GREAT. 

asteries remained in the country. As yet no one di- 
rected the rule of that kind of life in a regular way, 
for what reason I cannot say, either from the inva- 
sions of foreigners, which took place so frequently 
both by sea and land, or because that people abounded 
in riches of every kind, and so looked with contempt 
on the monastic life.'^ Alfred was consequently at 
once driven abroad, not only for learned monks who 
were able to occupy high places, and to instruct 
those who should instruct his people in all kinds of 
learning, but even for the ordinary brethren. For 
Athelney he got as first Abbot, John, priest and monk, 
an old Saxon by birth, and soon after him, certain 
monks and deacons from beyond the sea. But the 
monastery filled so slowly, that the King was soon 
driven to procure " as many as he could of the Gallic 
nation." Of these, some were children, for whom as 
well as for natives a school was established at Athel- 
ney, and they were taught there. Asser himself had 
seen a youth of pagan birth who had been educated in 
the monastery, and was of great promise. 

Alfred's second monastery was one for nuns, built 
by the eastern gate of the town of Shaftesbury. The 
first abbess was Ethelgiva, his second daughter, who 
must have been placed in that position while almost 
a child, unless, indeed, the monastery was not built 
till a much later period than Asser indicates. In 
any case, there seems to have been no difficulty in 
finding nuns amongst the Saxon nobles, for many 
noble ladies became bound by the rules of monastic 
life, and entered the convent at Shaftesbury with the 



THE KING'S CHURCH. 213 

King's daughter. Besides an original endowment of 
lands, these two foundations were permanently sus- 
tained by one-eighth part of the royal revenues. 

One other monastery Alfred appears to have com- 
menced at Winchester, called the new monastery, 
which was the latest and most magnificent of his ec- 
clesiastical buildings. It was intended as his burial- 
place, but was not finished at the time of his death. 
The chapel was so near the cathedral church of Win- 
chester, that the chanting of one choir could be heard 
in the other building, which seems to have caused 
much bitterness between the bishop and abbot and 
their respective staffs. To this may be attributed 
the hard terms imposed by the bishop on Edward the 
elder, Alfred's son and successor, who, being anxious 
to complete his father's work, and to add suitable of- 
fices to the new monastery, was charged by the bishop 
a mark of gold for every foot of land he was obliged 
to buy. These are Alfred's only ecclesiastical foun- 
dations, though he was a munificent benefactor of 
others, such as Sherborne and Durham cathedrals, 
and the abbeys of Glastonbury and Wilton, and ap- 
propriated one-eighth of his income for distribution 
to any that had need. 

But the building, restoring, and maintaining the 
outer fabric of churches, monasteries, and abbeys, was 
only the easiest part of the King's work. The dis- 
cipline and services of the Church, and the habits and 
manners of monks and priests, had fallen into lamen- 
table confusion. To restore these, Alfred searched 
his own and neighbouring kingdoms, and gathered 



214 ALFRED THE GREAT. 

round him a band of learned and pious churchmen, 
of whom he was able to speak with honourable pride 
towards the end of his life : " It is unknown how long 
there may be so learned bishops as, thank God, are 
now everywhere." We shall have to notice these 
friends of the King by themselves ; here it is only nec- 
essary to say that they taught in the schools, trans- 
lated books, restored Church discipline, presided in 
synods, all under the King's eye, and so restored the 
character of the Church of England, that once again 
" the clergy were zealous in learning and in teaching, 
and in all their sacred duties, and people came from 
foreign countries to seek instruction." 

One of the first effects of this revival was to at- 
tract the notice and approval of the Pope Martinus, 
who, either in the year 882 or 883, sent an embassy 
to Alfred with presents, including " a part of the rood 
on which Christ suffered." The King in return, in 
883, sent presents to the Pope by the hands of Sig- 
helm and Athelstane, two of his nobles, who also pre- 
sented the suit of their King and people, that the 
Saxon schools at Pome, which were supported by the 
bountv of his father Ethelwulf, and in the church 
attached to which Buhred, his unhappy brother-in- 
law, was buried, might be freed from all toll and trib- 
ute. Martinus granted the request, and died in the 
next year. But his death does not seem to have af- 
fected Alfred's relations with the head of the Church. 
In many subsequent years English embassies to 
Pome are mentioned, those, for instance, of Ethel- 
helm, Alderman of Wilts in 887, and Beocca in 888, 



THE KING'S CHURCH. 215 

with whom journeyed the widowed Ethelswitha, Al- 
fred's sister, formerly the lady of Mercia, to make 
her grave with her husband. She never reached 
Rome, but died on the journey at Pavia. Indeed, 
the note in the Saxon Chronicle for the year 889, " in 
this year there was no journey to Rome, except that 
King Alfred sent two couriers with letters," would 
lead to the inference that an embassy was regularly 
sent in ordinary years to carry the offerings of the 
King and people to the shrine of St. Peter. Beyond 
this interchange of courtesies, however, and the an- 
nual gifts, it does not appear that the relations be- 
tween the Pope and the English Church became at 
all more intimate in Alfred's time. In some respects, 
undoubtedly, he asserted his authority over the na- 
tional Church, and his superiority to its highest min- 
isters, more decidedly than any of his predecessors. 
In his laws, the second commandment was virtually 
restored to the Decalogue ; the King's were-gild was 
made higher than an archbishop's, reversing the older 
law: the fine for breaking the King's bail was five 
pounds' weight of coin ; for breaking an archbishop's 
bail, three pounds only ; for breaking into the King's 
house, 120 shillings ; into an archbishop's, ninety. 
Again, the way in which the King addresses and em- 
ploys his bishops, carrying them about with him, and 
using them as translators of the Scriptures, or of any 
other work which he desires to put within reach of 
his people, shows that he claimed them as his officers, 
and that they acknowledged his authority. It is said 
that he left all the sees of Wessex vacant for the last 



216 ALFRED THE GREAT. 

years of his reign, and only under the care of the 
Archbishop of Canterbury, and that the Pope did not 
even remonstrate with him, but on his death threat- 
ened his successor with excommunication unless they 
were filled up. From this fact Spelman argues that 
Alfred's " life and ways were not pleasing to the 
fathers at Rome." But this statement does not rest 
on any trustworthy authority, and it seems far more 
probable that Alfred lived on excellent terms with 
contemporary popes. They, for their part, seem to 
have wisely followed the liberal policy indicated in 
Gregory's answers to Saint Augustine, and to have 
allowed the Church in the distant island to develop in 
its own way. On the other hand, the King evidently 
entertained and expressed on all occasions, very real 
and deep reverence for the acknowledged head of the 
Church, and worked in such noble and perfect har- 
mony with his own bishops, that no questions seem 
ever to have arisen in his reign which could bring the 
spiritual and temporal powers into collision. His 
own humble and earnest piety, and scrupulous obser- 
vance of all the ordinances of the Church, united with 
extraordinary firmness and power of ruling men, no 
doubt contributed to this happy result. 

And so State and Church worked in harmony side 
by side, exercising a concurrent jurisdiction of a very 
remarkable kind. Every crime was punishable both 
by the civil and spiritual tribunals. The King and 
witan, or the judge and jury, or homage (as the case 
might be), punished the offender for the damage he 
had done to his fellow-citizens, or to the common- 



THE KING'S CHURCH. 217 

wealth, by fines, or mutilation, or imprisonment. 
But the criminal was not thus fully discharged. The 
moral sin remained, with which the State did not pro- 
fess to deal, but left it to the spiritual powers, aided 
by the provisions of the code. Accordingly, for every 
crime there was also a penance, to be fixed by bishop 
or priest. In short, Alfred and his witan believed 
that sin might be rooted out by external sanctions, 
penalties affecting body and goods. The Church, 
they thought, was the proper authority, the power 
which could do this work for the commonwealth, and 
accordingly to the Church the duty was entrusted. 

Looked at with the experience of another 1,000 
years, the wonder is, not that the attempt did not 
succeed, but that it worked even for a generation or 
so without bringing the two powers into the fiercest 
conflict. The singleness of mind and heart, and 
earnestness of Alfred, must have inspired in great 
measure his aldermen, judges, bishops, all men in 
responsible offices. So he could put forth his ideal, 
simply and squarely, and expect all Englishmen to 
endeavour to realize that — with results even there and 
then of a very surprising kind. For through the 
mists of 1,000 years we do here actually see a people 
trying, in a somewhat rude and uncouth way, but still 
honestly, to found their daily life, on the highest ideal 
they could hear of — on the divine daw as they ac- 
knowledged it — of doing as they would be done by. 

Rome was not the only or the most distant foreign 
Church to which Alfred sent embassies. He had 
made a vow, before the taking and rebuilding of Lon- 



218 ALFRED THE GREAT. 

don, that, if he should be successful in that undertak- 
ing, he would send gifts to the Christian churches in 
the far East, of which uncertain rumours and tradi- 
tions still spoke throughout Christendom. The 
apostles St. Thomas and St. Bartholomew had 
preached the Gospel in India and founded these 
churches, it was said, and it was to them that Alfred, 
in performance of his vow, despatched the same Sig- 
helm and Athelstan who were the bearers of his gifts 
and letters to Pope Martinus. They would seem, in- 
deed, to have gone on from Rome in the year 883, 
by what route we know not or how long they were 
upon their mission, or how they sped, save only that 
they came back to their King, bringing greetings 
from those distant brethren, and gifts of precious 
stones and spices in return for his alms. These 
Alfred distributed amongst his cathedrals, in some 
of which they were preserved for centuries. Such 
was the first intercourse between England and the 
great empire which has since been committed to her 
in the East. St. Thomas' Christians are still to be 
found in Malabar and elsewhere. 

Asser also mentions letters and presents sent by 
Abel, the patriarch of Jerusalem, to his king. It 
does not appear, however, that Alfred sent any em- 
bassy to the Holy Land. Dr. Pauli suggests that 
these gifts might have been brought to England by 
the survivor of three Scotch pilgrims, whose names a 
romantic legend connects with the English king. 
Dunstane, Macbeth, and Maclinman, were the three 
Christians in question, who, despairing, it would 



THE KING'S CHURCH. 219 

seem, of the Church in their own country, put to sea 
in a frail boat, patched together with ox-hides and 
carrying a week's provisions, and landed on the coast 
of Cornwall. From thence they made their way to 
Alfred's court, and were hospitably entertained by 
him, as his wont was, and forwarded on their journey, 
from which one of them only returned. 

Asser speaks also, in general language, of daily 
embassies sent to the King by foreign nations, " from 
the Tyrrhenian Sea to the farthest end of Ireland." 
Of these, however, we have no certain account, but 
enough remains to show how the spirit of Alfred 
yearned for intercourse with Christians in all parts 
of the known world, and how the fame of his right- 
eous government, and of his restored Church, was go- 
ing forth, in these years of peace, to the ends of the 
earth. 

But the greatest work of that Church, as of all true 
churches, was the education of the people at home. 
Besides the schools attached to his foundations of 
Athelney and Winchester, Alfred established many 
schools for the laity in different parts of his kingdom. 
One was attached to the court, and in it the children 
of his nobles, ministers, and friends were educated 
with his own children, and " were loved by him with 
wonderful affection, being no less dear to him than 
his own." They were educated carefully in good 
morals, and in the study of their own language, the 
King himself constantly superintending, and taking 
part in the teaching. To use his own words, he was 
desirous " that all the free-born youth of his people 



220 ALFRED THE GREAT. 

who had the means should persevere in learning so 
long as they had no other duties to attend to, until 
they could read the English Scriptures with fluency, 
and such as desired to devote themselves to the service 
of the Church might be taught Latin." 



THE KING'S FRIENDS. 221 



CHAPTEK XVIIL 



THE KING S FKIENDS. 



" As the judge of the people is himself, so are his officers : and 
what man the ruler of the city is, such are all they that 
dwell therein." 

We had already incidentally come across several 
of the statesmen and ecclesiastics who were singled 
out and employed by Alfred, and must now endeavour 
to make some closer acquaintance with the men 
through whom the great reform of the English nation 
was wrought out under the great king. Unfortunate- 
ly, the memorials of them are scanty, for they were 
a set of notable workers, worthy of all honour, and of 
the attentive and respectful regard even of the nine- 
teenth century. They were of all races whom the 
King could get at, and of all ranks. Prince, noble, 
or peasant, rough skipper, or studious monk, or cun- 
ning craftsman, it was the same to him. The man 
who could do his work, this was all he cared for, and, 
when he had found him, set him forthwith to do it, 
with whatever promotion, precedence, or other ma- 
terial support might best help him. 



222 ALFRED THE GREAT. 

John, the old Saxon, sometimes called John of Cor- 
vey, priest and monk, a stern disciplinarian and cour- 
ageous person, we have already heard of as first Abbot 
of Athelney, having also the superintendence of the 
theological school attached to the King's monastery 
there. Alfred himself has studied under him, and 
so has come to discern the man's faculty. For he 
was the King's mass-priest while Athelney was build- 
ing, and helped him in the translation of " The 
Hinds' Book " (Gregory's pastoral) into the English 
tongue. Abbot John had a difficult, even a perilous 
time of it there, in the little island, remote from men, 
hemmed in by swamp and forest, where his monks 
have no orchards or gardens to till, and his boys no 
playground. The King's piety, and love of his place 
of refuge, have for once outweighed his sagacity, or 
he had not chosen the island for such purposes. En- 
glishmen cannot be got to live there, and the Franks 
and others are jealous of their abbot. Brooding over 
it in that solitude, at last a priest and deacon and 
two monks, all Franks, plot his murder. John the 
Abbot goes constantly at midnight to pray before the 
high altar by himself. So the plotters bribe two for- 
eign serving-men to hide in the church armed, and 
there slay him ; after which they were to drag out the 
body, and cast it before the house of a certain woman 
of evil repute. The men on the night appointed ac- 
cordingly rushed on the old man as he was kneeling 
before the altar. But he, hearing their approach, 
" being a man of brave mind, and as we have heard 
not acquainted with the art of self-defence, if he had 



THE KING'S FRIENDS. 223 

not been the follower of a better calling," rose up be- 
fore he was wounded, and strove with them, shout- 
ing out that they were devils. The monks, alarmed 
by the cries, rush in in time to carry their abbot off 
badly wounded, the conspirators mingling their tears 
with those of the other monks. In the confusion the 
assassins escape for the moment, but in the end all 
those concerned were taken and put in prison, "where 
by various tortures they came to a disgraceful end." 

Nothing more is known of Abbot John's troubles 
or successes, and we may hope that he got his mon- 
astery and school into working order, and lived peace- 
ably there for the rest of his days. 

When a boy, Alfred, travelling across France with 
his father, had become acquainted, amongst other 
eminent scholars, with Grimbald, a priest skilled in 
music, and learned in Holy Scripture, and in all 
doctrine and discipline of the Church. He has risen 
since that time to the dignity of Provost of St. Omers, 
within the jurisdiction of Fulk, Archbishop of 
Rheims. To this prelate Alfred sends an embassy 
both of ecclesiastics and laymen, bearing presents, 
and praying that Grimbald may be allowed to come to 
England, to assist in building up and restoring the 
Church there. The answer is still extant. Address- 
ing " the most Christian King of the English," Fulk, 
" Archbishop of Rheims and the servant of the ser- 
vants of God," congratulates Alfred on the success 
of his temporal arms, and his zeal for enlarging the 
Church by spiritual weapons. The Archbishop 
prays incessantly that God will multiply peace to 



224 ALFRED THE GREAT. 

the King's realm in his days, and that the ecclesias- 
tical orders (" which have, as ye say, in many ways 
fallen away, whether hy the constant inroads of heath- 
en men, or because the times are feeble by age, or 
through the neglect of bishops, or ignorance of the 
inferior clergy ") may by his diligence be reformed, 
ennobled, extended. The Archbishop acknowledges, 
has evidently been elated by, the King's desire to im- 
port doctrine and discipline from the seat of Saint 
Remigius, " which, we are constrained to boast, has 
always excelled in worship and doctrine all other 
French churches." Amongst other presents (for 
which grateful thanks) " ye have sent us noble and 
very staunch hounds, though carnal, for the controll- 
ing of those visible wolves, with great abundance of 
which, amongst other scourges, a just God has af- 
flicted our land; asking of us in return hounds, not 
carnal but spiritual, not such, however, as those of 
which the prophet has said ' many dogs, not able to 
bark/ but such as shall know well how for their Lord 
to bay in earnest (magnos latratus f under e), to guard 
His flock with most vigilant watchfulness, and to 
drive far away those most cruel wolves of unclean 
spirits, who are the betrayers and devourers of souls. 
Out of such spiritual watchdogs ye have singled out 
and asked from us one of the name of Grimbald, 
priest and monk, to whom the universal Church bears 
record, she who has nourished him from his child- 
hood in the true faitl^ advancing him after her man- 
ner to the dignity of the priesthood, and proclaiming 
him suited to the highest ecclesiastical honour, and 



THE KING'S FRIENDS. 225 

well fitted to teach others. This same man has been 
a most faithful coadjutor to us, and we cannot with- 
out sore affliction suffer him to be parted from us by 
so vast a space of land and sea. But charity taketh 
no note of sacrifice, nor faith of injury, nor can any 
earthly distance keep apart those whom the chain of a 
true affection joins. Wherefore we grant this re- 
quest of yours most willingly." Such is the reply, 
much abridged, of the worthy Archbishop, evidently 
a Christian prelate with large leisure, some sense of 
humour, and a copious epistolary gift, who is im- 
pressed in his continental diocese with the vigour and 
greatness of his correspondent, and " desires that his 
royal state, piety, and valour may continue to rejoice 
and abound in Christ, the King of kings and Lord of 
lords." 

Grimbald, thus introduced, remains at first by Al- 
fred's side as one of his mass-priests, assisting the 
King in his translations. Afterwards he becomes 
professor of divinity in one of the new schools, prob- 
ably at Oxford, and then abbot of the new monastery 
at Winchester. There has been much learned con- 
troversy as to Grimbald' s connexion with Oxford, in 
consequence of an interpolation in one of the early 
manuscripts of Asser's life, which purports to give 
an account of a violent quarrel which soon arose be- 
tween Grimbald and the scholars whom he found 
there, and who refused to submit to the " laws, modes, 
and forms of prelection," which he desired to intro- 
duce. Their own, they maintained, had been estab- 
lished and approved by many learned and pious men, 

15 



226 ALFRED THE GREAT. 

notably by St. Gernianus, who bad come to Oxford, 
and stopped there for half a year on his way to preach 
against the heresies of Pelagius. The strife ran so 
high that the King himself went to Oxford at Grim- 
bald's summons, and " endured much trouble " in 
hearing the arguments on both sides. Having lis- 
tened u with unheard of humility, the King exhorted 
them, with pious and wholesome admonition, to cher- 
ish mutual love and concord, and decided that each 
party should follow their own counsel and keep their 
own institutions." The whole story is probably the 
invention of a later century, when the claims of the 
two great universities to priority of foundation were 
warmly discussed. There is no proof that Oxford 
existed as a place of education before Alfred's time, 
nor is it certain that he founded schools there, though 
the " Annals of Winchester," and other ancient and 
respectable authorities, so assert, and that he built 
and endowed three colleges, " the greater hall, the les- 
ser hall, and the little hall " of the university, of 
which halls University College is the lineal survivor. 
" Grimbald's crypt," however, may still be seen un- 
der the chancel of St. Peter's Church, the oldest in 
Oxford, and it seems more than probable that in some 
of the manuscripts of Asser's life, now lost, there was 
an account of the building of the original church on 
this site by Grimbald, and its consecration by the 
Bishop of Dorchester. The present church and crypt 
are undoubtedly of later date, but the tradition is 
strong enough to support the arguments of the 
learned. Those who are interested in the controversy 



THE KING'S FRIENDS. 227 

will find it elaborately summed, up in Sir J. Spel- 
man's Third Book. In any case, it is certain that Al- 
fred had a mint at Oxford, even if he founded no 
schools there. 

Of English churchmen, Plegmund, Alfred's Arch- 
bishop of Canterbury, a Mercian by birth, is the most 
distinguished — said indeed to have been the first man 
of his time " in the science of holy learning." He 
escaped from the sack of his monastery at the time 
of the Danish invasion of Mercia, in 876, and lived 
as a hermit in an island four and a half miles from 
Chester for fourteen years, till sought out by Alfred 
and promoted to the primacy in 890, on the death of 
Archbishop Ethelred. It is more probable, however, 
that he was constantly with Alfred much earlier than 
this, for he is specially named as his instructor, and 
seldom quitted the Court till after his lord's death. 
He went however, to Rome in 891 to be consecrated 
by Pope Eormosus ; and again a second time, after the 
body of Formosus had been disinterred and thrown 
into the Tiber by Stephen his successor, to be re- 
consecrated. He survived Alfred for twenty-three 
years, and seems to have ruled the English Church 
wisely, till his own death. 

Another Mercian who was much consulted by Al- 
fred, and who appears to have frequently visited him 
in Wessex, was Werfrith, Bishop of Worcester, to 
whom the King's celebrated preface to Gregory's 
" Pastoral Care " is addressed, and who, by Alfred's 
desire, translated the Dialogues of the same Pope 
into Saxon. He was the foremost helper of Alderman 



228 ALFRED THE GREAT. 

Ethelred and his wife, the Lady of Mercia, Ethel- 
fleda, Alfred's daughter, and a vigorous organizer and 
governor of the things and persons of this world; 
ready, however, as a loyal son of holy Church to ex- 
tend the rights of the see of Worcester whenever op- 
portunity might offer. A most characteristic in- 
stance of this instinct of Bishop Werfrith's occurs in 
the report of a sitting of the Mercian witan, first 
translated by Dr. Pauli from the Saxon. It is, in 
fact, the report of an important parliamentary debate 
of 1,000 years back, curious as a contrast to a Han- 
sard's debate of to-day in more ways than one. It can 
scarcely be abridged without damage, and is as fol- 
lows : — 

" In the name of Christ our Lord and Saviour. 
After eight hundred and ninety-six years had passed 
since His birth, in the fourteenth Indiction, the Earl- 
derman Ethelred summoned the Mercian witan, bish- 
ops, nobles, and all his forces, to appear at Gloster; 
and this he did with the knowledge and approbation 
of King Alfred. There they took counsel together 
how they might the most justly govern their com- 
munity before God and the world, and many men, 
clergy as well as laity, consulted together respecting 
the lands, and many other matters which were laid 
before them. Then Bishop Werfrith spoke to the 
assembled witan, and declared that all forest land 
which belonged to Wuduceastre, and the revenues 
of which King Ethelbald once bestowed on Worcester 
for ever, should henceforth be held by Bishop Wer- 
frith for wood and pasture ; and he said that the rev- 



THE KING'S FRIENDS. 229 

enue should be taken partly at Bislege, partly at 
Aefeningas, partly at Scorranstane, and partly at 
Thornbyrig, according as he chose. Then all the 
witan answered that the Church must make good her 
right as well as others. Then Ethelwald (Ealder- 
man ?) spoke : he would not oppose the right, the 
Bishops Aldberht and Alhun had already negotiated 
hereon, he would at all times grant to each church 
her allotted portion. So he benevolently yielded to 
the bishop's claim, and commanded his vassal Ecglef 
to depart with Wulfhun, the priest of the place 
(Gloster? — properly, the inhabitant of the place). 
And he caused all the boundaries to be surveyed by 
them, as he read them in the old books, and as King 
Ethelbald had formerly marked them out and granted 
them. But Ethelwald still desired from the bishops 
and the diocese, that they should kindly allow him 
and his son Alhmund to enjoy the profits of the land 
for life; they would hold it only as a loan, and no 
one might deprive them of any of the rights of pas- 
ture, which were granted to him at Langanhrycge at 
the time when God gave him the land. And Ethel- 
wald declared that it would be always against God's 
favour for any one to possess it but the lord of that 
church to whom it had been relinquished, with the 
exception of Alhmund ; and that he, during his life, 
would maintain the same friendly spirit of co-opera- 
tion with the bishop. But if it ever happened that 
Alhmund should cease to recognize the agreement, or 
if he should be pronounced unworthy to keep the 
land, or thirdly, if his end should arrive, then the lord 



230 ALFRED THE GREAT. 

of the church should enter into possession, as the Mer- 
cian witan had decided at their assembly, and pointed 
out to him in the books. This took place with the 
concurrence of the Ealderman Ethelred, or Ethel- 
fleda, of the Ealdermen Ethulf, Ethelferth, and Alh- 
helm, of the Priests Ednoth, ElfraBd, Werferth, and 
Ethelwald, of his own kinsmen, Ethelstan and Ethel- 
hun, and likewise of Alhmund his own son. And so 
the priest of the place and Ethelwald's vassal rode 
over the land, first to Ginnethkege and Roddimbeorg, 
then to Smececumb and Sengetlege, then to Heard- 
anlege also called Dryganleg, and as far as Little 
Nsegleslege and the land of Ethelferth. So Ethel- 
wald's men pointed out to him the boundaries as they 
were defined and shown in the ancient books." 

To Bishop Werfrith's zeal and ability it is most 
probably owing that the reaction towards paganism 
in Mercia, which followed the Danish occupation, 
made little progress. All traces of it seem to have 
disappeared before Alfred's death, when Central Eng- 
land had become as sound as Southern England. 

The only native of Wessex who would seem to 
have won a place for himself in that little band of 
reforming churchmen was Denewulf, Bishop of Win- 
chester, an honoured and faithful counsellor of the 
King, who is commonly supposed to be the neat-herd 
with whom Alfred became acquainted in 878, in Sel- 
wood Forest. If this be so, he could scarcely have 
been a wholly uneducated man even then, as Alfred 
required scholarship in his bishops, and Denewulf 
was consecrated before the end of 881. The story 



THE KING'S FRIENDS. 231 

rests principally on the authority of the Chronicle of 
Florence of Worcester, compiled towards the end of 
the eleventh century. 

But the friend of Alfred's of whom we know most 
is Asser Menevensis, a Welsh monk, the author of the 
Life so often quoted ; and who, during the last sixteen 
or seventeen years of his life, was the most intimate 
friend and adviser of the King. Somewhere about 
the year 884 Asser was either summoned by Alfred, 
or came of his own accord, from the monastery of St. 
David's, on " the furthest western coast of Wales," 
to the royal residence at Dene, in Sussex, where Al- 
fred was then staying with his court. It would seem 
that the Welsh prince, Hemeid, who had sworn al- 
legiance to Alfred to obtain protection against the 
six sons of Rotri, was in the habit of plundering the 
monastery, and had recently driven JSTovis, Archbish- 
op of St. David's, Asser's kinsman, out of his diocese. 
]STovis and his kinsman will no doubt have reasoned, 
that a king familiar with the parables would be wroth 
at such conduct in a fellow-servant : and that he who 
was so bent on establishing monasteries as schools 
and refuges for learning in his own kingdom, will not 
suffer this kind of doings by one whom he is protect- 
ing. Whether summoned or not, Asser was received 
with open arms by the King, who knew him for a 
learned and pious man, and at once admitted him to 
familiar intercourse. Soon the King began to press 
him earnestly to devote himself to his service, and to 
give up all he possessed on the west bank of the 
Severn, promising to recompense him amply in his 



232 ALFRED THE GREAT. 

own dominions. " I replied," Asser continues, " that 
I could not without thought, and rashly, promise such 
things, for it seemed to me wrong to leave those sacred 
places where I had been bred and educated, and had 
received the tonsure and ordination, for the sake of 
any earthly honour or promotion. Upon this he said, 
1 If you cannot altogether accede to my request, at 
least let me have your service in part ; spend six 
months of the year with me, and the other six in 
Wales.' I answered that I could not even promise 
this hastily, without the advice of my friends. But 
at length, when I saw that he was very anxious for 
my service (though I know not why), I promised 
that if my life were spared I would come back in six 
months with such a reply as would be welcome to 
Jiim, as well as advantageous to me and my friends. 
With this answer he was content, and when I had 
given him a pledge to return at the appointed time, 
on the fourth day I left him, and returned on horse- 
back towards my own country. After my depart- 
ure I was stricken by a violent fever at Winchester, 
where I lay for a year and a week, night and day, 
without hope of recovery. At the appointed time, 
therefore, I could not redeem my pledge of returning 
to him, and he sent messengers to hasten my journey 
and ask the cause of the delay. As I was unable to 
ride to him I sent a messenger to tell him the cause 
of the delay, and to assure him that if I recovered I 
would fulfil what I had promised. So when my sick- 
ness left me, by the advice of all my friends, for the 
benefit of our holy place and of all who dwelt there- 



THE KINGS FKIENDS. 233 

in, I did as I had promised the King, and devoted 
myself to his service on condition that I should re- 
main with him six months in every year, either con- 
tinuously, if I could spend six months in every year 
with him continuously, or alternately, three months 
in Wales, and three in England." Asser accordingly 
went to the court at Leonaford, where the King 
received him honourably, and he remained eight 
months, " during which I read to him whatever books 
he liked, and such as we had at hand ; for this is his 
regular custom both night and day, amid his many 
other occupations of mind and body, either himself to 
read books or to listen while others read them." 
Asser, however, finds that the six months' compact is 
likely to be forgotten, and reminds the King of it 
frequently. " At length, when I had made up my 
mind to demand leave to go home, he called me to 
him at twilight, on Christmas eve, and gave me two 
documents in which was a long list of all the things 
which were in two monasteries, called in Saxon An- 
gusbury and Banwell, and at that same time delivered 
to me those two monasteries with all those things 
which were in them, and a silken pall of great value, 
and a load of incense as much as a strong man could 
carry, adding that he did not give me these trifling 
presents because he was unwilling hereafter to give 
me greater; for in course of time he unexpectedly 
gave me Exeter, with all the church property which 
belonged to him there and in Cornwall, besides daily 
gifts without number, of every kind of worldly 
wealth, which it would be too long to recount lest I 



234 ALFRED THE GREAT. 

should weary my readers. But let no one suppose 
that I have mentioned these presents here for the sake 
of glory or flattery, or to obtain greater honour. I 
call God to witness that I have not done so, but that I 
might testify to those who are ignorant how liberal 
he is in giving. He then at once gave me leave to 
ride to these monasteries, and then to return to my 
own country." So Asser was installed as a sort of 
bishop in partibus to his own countrymen in Corn- 
wall. So at least we are driven to conjecture, for the 
see of Exeter was not constituted for another century, 
nor was he made Bishop of Sherborne till the death 
of Wulfsig in the year 900, though Alfred styles him 
bishop, and his name is attached to charters as bishop 
for many years before that date. We shall have to 
return to the good bishop's reminiscences when we 
treat of the King's private and literary life. 

The other ecclesiastics who worked in that noble 
band of the King's helpers, such as Ethelstan and 
Werewulf of Mercia, are scarcely more than names 
to us, unless we except Joannes Erigena, or Scotus, 
an Irishman by birth, who is said by some to have 
taken refuge with the King. That Alfred when a 
boy had known John at the court of Charles the Bald, 
where he was tutor to Judith and her brothers, we 
have already heard, and may be sure that he would 
have been anxious to obtain the help of so eminent a 
scholar and thinker. Moreover, John the Scot, who 
has been called the father of the Realist, and had 
studied in the East and at Athens, may well have 
needed an asylum at this time. He had written 



r THE KING'S FRIENDS. 035 

works on the Eucharist, and on predestination, which 
had brought him into trouble with the authorities of 
the Church, and had not only refused to distinguish 
religion from philosophy, on the ground that both 
had the same end — the search for truth ; but had ac- 
tually maintained that all authority is derived from 
reason, and that authority which is not confirmed by 
reason is of no value. At the same time his famous 
retort to Charles — who had asked him sitting at meat 
what separates a Scot and a sot (quid interest inter 
Scotum et sotnm) — " the table only " (mensa tan- 
turn), may have made the French court an unde- 
sirable residence. Still, had he come to England, 
Asser had surely specially notified him amongst 
Alfred's helpers and friends. 

Of laymen a long list might be given, from Ethel- 
red of Mercia, to Othere and Wulfstan, his sea cap- 
tains, the account of whose voyages in the JSTorth Sea 
is interpolated by Alfred in his translation of Orosius. 
But beyond their names, and offices in the King's 
household, there is little to tell of them, though 
enough remains to witness to the truth of Asser's elo- 
quent statement, that " he would avail himself of 
every opening to procure helpers in his great designs, 
to aid him in his strivings after wisdom; and like 
a prudent bird, which, rising in early morning from 
her loved nest, steers her swift flight through the un- 
certain tract of air, and descends on the manifold and 
varied flowers of grass, herb, and shrub, trying that 
which pleases most, that she may bear it to her home, 
so did he direct his eyes afar, and seek abroad that 



236 ALFRED THE GREAT. 

which he had not at home within his own king- 
dom." 

At the same time, though he gathered round him 
competent men of all nations and all callings, wher- 
ever he could find them, Alfred was singularly inde- 
pendent of them. He had no indispensable officers. 
The work which went on so busily during those years 
of peace, and was transforming the life of all south- 
ern England, was his own work. He was not only 
the inspirer, but in a very real sense the doer of it, 
and there is no name of bishop, soldier, or jurist, 
which can make good a claim to anything more than 
honour reflected from their great King. In all his- 
tory it would be hard to find a more striking example 
of what one man may do for a nation in the course of 
a short lifetime. 



THE KING'S NEIGHBOURS. 237 



CHAPTEE XIX. 



THE KING'S NEIGHBOURS. 



" All kings shall fall down before him : all nations shall do 

him service. 
" For he shall deliver the poor when he crieth : the needy 

also, and him that hath no helper." 

The temptation to over-govern is apt to beset rulers 
who have the intense love of order, and genius for 
organizing, which distinguished Alfred. It is not 
easy for such men to recognize the worth of national 
or local habits and customs, or to resist the tempta- 
tion of imposing their own laws and methods upon 
races which come under their influence, and Christen- 
dom has suffered grievously, and is still suffering, 
from such attempts to crush out national life. The 
surroundings of Alfred were precisely those most 
likely to have promoted such a policy. In the years of 
rest which followed the peace of Wedmore the West 
Saxon kingdom increased in wealth and power so 
rapidly as completely to overshadow its weaker neigh- 
bours. One after another they sought the protection 
of Alfred, and in no case was such protection refused, 
or any attempt made to fasten on them the West 



238 ALFRED THE GREAT. 

Saxon code of laws, or to supersede the native govern- 
ment. 

The old enemies of the Saxons and Angles, the 
Britons, who had been forced back into the Welsh 
mountains, had maintained their independence 
against such kings as Offa and Egbert. There had 
been constant wars on the marshes. Often defeated 
and invaded, the Celtic tribes had always closed up 
behind the retreating Saxon armies. They had re- 
fused all allegiance, and held little peaceable inter- 
course with their stronger neighbours. In the last of 
the Saxon invasions, King Ethelwulf had penetrated 
to the Isle of Angle sea, and humbled Rotri Mawr 
(the great Roderick), while Alfred was a child. In 
revenge, the Welsh had sympathized with and as- 
sisted the Dane, and had seriously added to the peril 
of the great struggle of his manhood. 

Rotri Mawr had left six sons, turbulent men from 
their youth up, of whom the leader, probably the 
eldest, was Anarant, who had become the friend and 
ally of the Northumbrian Danes of Halfdene's army. 
The hand of these brethren was heavy on the other 
Welsh princes in those disturbed years. Hemeid, 
prince of Demetia, the disturber of the prelates and 
monastery of St. David's — to appeal against whose 
frequent plunderings Asser made his pilgrimage 
from that quiet sanctuary in " the extremest western 
coasts of Britain " — was the first to open negotia- 
tions with Alfred. He and his people were driven 
to this appeal by the violence of their northern 
neighbours, the six sons of Rotri: so they submitted 



THE KING'S NEIGHBOURS. 239 

themselves to the dominion of the King, and obtained 
his protection. Then Helioed the son of Tendyr, the 
king or chief of the " Brecheinoc " Welsh, occupying 
the present country of Brecknock and neighbouring 
districts of Central Wales, came in and made his sub- 
mission, to protect his people from the same turbulent 
neighbours. Further south, Howell the son of Rhys, 
and Brochmail and Fernmail, the two sons of Mouric, 
who between them held rule over all the tribes inhab- 
iting Morganwy and Gwent by the Severn, and whose 
country marched with that of Ethelred of Mercia, 
appealed from that energetic viceroy to King Alfred, 
and placed themselves under his protection. They 
accused the King's son-in-law of violence and tyran- 
ny; and we may readily understand that Ethelred's 
notions of government were of a kind which would 
be likely to bring about frequent collisions with his 
neighbours on the opposite bank of the Severn. All 
of these " gained the love and guardianship " of the 
great King of the West Saxons, " and defence from 
every quarter, even as the King with his men could 
protect himself." So at last Anarant, the son of 
Botri, with his five brothers, finding that their occu- 
pation was gone, and that the shield of the great King 
was cast over all their brother princelings and their 
possessions, "abandoning the friendship of the North- 
umbrians, from which they had received harm only, 
came into King Alfred's presence and eagerly sought 
his friendship." This was at once accorded to them 
also. They were honourably entertained at court, 
and Anarant was " made Alfred's son by confirmation 



210 ALFRED THE GREAT. 

from the bishop's hands/' and left for his own coun- 
try loaded with many gifts. The same terms of al- 
legiance were imposed on him as on Ethelred of Mer- 
cia : and so, before the year 884, the whole of Wales 
was brought under Alfred's sway; the intertribal 
wars and plunderings ceased, and the country en- 
joyed peace, and the princes the friendship of their 
great neighbour, and his assistance in all ways in the 
improvement of their own people. Thus the old 
wounds were closed for the time, and the two nations 
settled down in unaccustomed peace, Celt and Saxon 
side by side, after upwards of four centuries of fierce 
and disastrous warfare. The peace was of short du- 
ration, but it lasted till after Alfred's death. 

The near relationship between the people of the 
kingdoms of Mercia and Wessex, and the old rivalry 
between their royal houses, must have made the task 
of establishing satisfactory relations between them, 
now that the supremacy of the latter had been thor- 
oughly established, even more difficult than in the 
case of North Wales. The memories of Penda and 
OfTa, of many battles won on West Saxon soil — even 
of tribute paid and allegiance owned — must still have 
been fresh in Mercia. But Buhred had left no chil- 
dren, and the most powerful of the Mercian nobles 
was devoted to Alfred. This was Ethelred, the earl 
of the Anglian tribe of Hwiccas, who were settled in 
the eastern parts of Worcestershire and Hereford- 
shire, and had been the chief bulwark against the 
Welsh. We do not know anything of his earlier his- 
tory, and cannot conjecture therefore how so brave 



THE KING'S NEIGHBOURS. 241 

and able a man, at the head of a tribe inured to the 
constant warfare of the marches, made no head 
against Guthrum and the pagan army at the time of 
the Danish occupation of Mercia. At any rate he 
had not forefeited the confidence and good will of Al- 
fred, for in the year 880, the same in which the 
Danes finally left their camp at Cirencester and re- 
tired into East Anglia, Ethelred was appointed al- 
derman of Mercia, and acknowledged allegiance to Al- 
fred. We have a charter of that year signed by him 
in that capacity, to which is appended Alfred's signa- 
ture as his over-lord : " I Alfred, King, have con- 
sented and subscribed." In like manner, in the year 
883, a gift of church lands by Alderman Ethelred 
bears the endorsement, " I Alfred confirm this gift 
with the sign of the holy cross." 

But there is stronger proof of the esteem in which 
Ethelred was held by his king, in the fact that he 
became the husband of Ethelfleda, Alfred's eldest 
daughter. The date of the marriage cannot be ascer- 
tained, as no notice of the event occurs in the Chron- 
cles. But even in those times, when girls were mar- 
ried at far earlier ages than now, it could scarcely 
have happened before 882, for Alfred himself was 
only married in the autumn of 868. But, both be- 
fore and after his marriage, the same energy in his 
government and loyalty to his king seems to have dis- 
tinguished Ethelred. Mercia had its own witan, 
which was summoned more frequently than that of 
Wessex. It was presided over by Ethelred, and set- 
tled all questions connected with the internal affairs 
16 



242 ALFRED THE GREAT. 

of the kingdom, subject only to Alfred's approval. 
In the report of the session of the witan in 896, al- 
ready given, we find the express statement that it was 
summoned " with the knowledge and approbation of 
King Alfred ; " but neither then, nor in the earlier 
sessions of 883 and 886, is there any trace of his fur- 
ther interference. Mercia was left to develop itself 
in its own way, and under its own laws. We have, 
unfortunately, no copy of the code which Alfred 
caused to be prepared for the sister kingdom, but the 
best Anglo-Saxon scholars agree in holding, that the 
institutes of OfTa were embodied in it, as we have 
seen that " Ina's dooms " were incorporated in the 
West Saxon code. 

The wisdom of this policy may be gathered from 
results. The Saxon and Anglian kingdoms remained 
distinct, but closely confederated, and the differences 
of language and custom died out rapidly, thus pre- 
paring the way for a still closer union. During 
Ethelred's life Mercia was consolidated and strength- 
ened; and the Welsh on the one side, and the East 
Anglians on the other, felt a master's hand. On his 
death, in 910, London and Oxford were at once in- 
corporated in the West Saxon kingdom, and the re- 
mainder of Mercia nine years later, on the death of 
Ethelfleda. 

In like manner Alfred's relations with the new and 
enlarged kingdom of East Anglia are characterised 
at once by prudence and good faith. Until the out- 
break of another war the boundaries of Guthorm 
Athelstan's kingdom, as settled by the first short 



THE KING'S NEIGHBOURS. 243 

treaty of Wedmore, were scrupulously respected. No 
attempt was made to recover either Essex on the 
south, or any of that part of Mercia which lay to the 
north and east of Watling Street. The only act of 
sovereignty, on the part of Alfred, was the introduc- 
tion into East Anglia of a code of laws similar in es- 
sence to the West Saxon code, but at the same time 
carefully recognising and respecting differences 
springing from custom and race. This code, in fact, 
is the enlarged treaty of Wedmore, to which refer- 
ence has been already made. 

In the form in which it has come down to us it is 
called the treaty of Edward and Guthorm, and may 
possibly have been formally agreed to after Alfred's 
death by Edward his son and Guthorm II., who is 
said to have come to the East Anglian throne in 905. 

However this may be, there can be no doubt that 
the substance of the code was in force before the death 
of Guthorm Athelstan in 890, for the preamble be- 
gins : " These are the dooms which King Alfred and 
King Guthorm chose," and declares that the same 
had been repeatedly ratified between the Saxons and 
Danes. The differences between the two codes are 
greater in appearance than in reality. Thus the code 
for the Danish kingdom has one doom only in sub- 
stitution for the whole Decalogue, and the greater 
part of the Levitical laws, which are set out in the 
West Saxon code. This sweeping doom declares that 
" the people shall love one God only, and zealously 
renounce every kind of heathendom." The remain- 
der of the code is taken up with declarations of right, 



244 ALFRED THE GREAT. 

and lists of penalties, founded on the same principles, 
and inflicted for the same classes of offences, as those 
in Alfred's dooms. The double liability of every law- 
breaker to the temporal and spiritual power — the 
necessity for making amends to the Church, as well 
as to the Crown and the kin of the injured man — is 
enforced throughout. In the same way the rights of 
the several classes of society are valued according to 
the amount of their property; but in each case the 
division of race is also recognised, the Saxon paying 
" were " and " wite," the Dane " lahslit." The only 
difference of note is, the greater amount of protec- 
tion which the Danish code endeavours to throw over 
priests and foreigners. Thus Article XII. enacts 
that " if any man wrong an ecclesiastic, or foreigner, 
as to money or life, the king, or earl, or bishop shall 
be to him in place of a kinsman; and let boot be 
strictly made according as the deed may be, to Christ, 
and to the king; or let him avenge the deed very 
deeply who is king among the people." This dis- 
tinction may have arisen from the necessity of shield- 
ing Christian clergy, in those parts where the ma- 
jority of the people were still Pagans, who remem- 
bered the sack and burning of the monasteries; and 
from the desire of Alfred to encourage intercourse 
between his own immediate subjects and the East 
Anglians. 

After a few restless years, ending in the outbreak 
of 885, when Alfred's fleet crossed from Rochester 
to avenge the breach of peace by the seafaring por- 
tion of Guthorm Athelstan's people, that prince seems 



THE KING'S NEIGHBOURS. 245 

to have kept faith with his over-lord, and to have lived 
quietly at home. Whether his conversion was sin- 
cere or not we cannot tell; but certainly, under the 
influence of the treaty-code, and the intercourse with 
the neighbouring kingdoms, and with the remnants 
of the old Anglian stock which remained within their 
borders, the Danes, who dwelt in all the central coun- 
ties bordering on Watling Street, became a Christian 
people. In 890 Guthorm Athelstan died, and was 
buried at Thetford. He was succeeded by one Eoh- 
ric, a Northman, under whom the Danes settled on 
the coasts of Norfolk, Suffolk, and Essex appear to 
have returned to their old piratical habits, if not to 
heathenism, and to have made common cause with 
Hasting in his great invasion of England. But even 
after the defeat of the last great viking the policy of 
Alfred remained unchanged. With the exception of 
the western portion of Essex, which he incorporated 
in Mercia for the protection of London, the boun- 
daries of East Anglia were left as they had been set- 
tled by the treaty of Wedmore. 

The Northumbrian kingdom can scarcely be reck- 
oned amongst the neighbours of Wessex, but even 
there Alfred's influence was acknowledged. After 
the death of Halfdene, Guthrid, said to have been a 
son of Hardicanute, king of Denmark, succeeded. He 
was a Christian, and became the firm ally of Alfred, 
who assisted him in the restoration of the Church of 
Durham, and contributed, out of that eighth of his 
income which was set apart for these purposes, to the 
needs of other churches and servants of God dwelling 



246 ALFRED THE GREAT. 

in Northumbria. Unbroken peace was maintained 
between the two kingdoms during all Alfred's days. 

Kent and Sussex were mere appanages of Wessex 
before Alfred came to the throne, but had not until 
now been thoroughly incorporated. This was now 
done. Instead of a cadet of the royal family of Cer- 
dic ruling as king in one or the other of them, as 
Ethelwulf and x\thelstan had done, they were now 
placed under Alfred's aldermen, and were subject, no 
doubt, to the same burdens, and entitled to the same 
privileges, as Wiltshire or Berkshire. At the same 
time local traditions and customs were respected, such 
as gavelkind, which remains in Kent to this day. 

Thus the King lived, in perfect amity with his 
neighbours, and without a thought of abusing his 
superior strength. No soldier of Alfred's ever drew 
sword except in defence of his own home and country. 
He even put a check on his energetic son-in-law 
Ethelred of Mercia, when his hand was beginning to 
be felt too heavily by the people of North Wales. No 
great soldier had ever more plausible pretexts for 
despoiling his neighbours. All his boundaries to- 
wards the north and east wanted rectifying, and occa- 
sions for quarrel with the East Anglians, and Welsh, 
and Northumbrians were never far to seek. But in 
his eyes strength and power were simply trusts, to 
be used by their possessors for the benefit of the weak. 
This was his reading of the will and meaning of the 
King who commanded him, and he acted on it with 
a single mind, exercising a forbearance and modera- 
tion in his wars, negotiations, and treaties, for which 
it would be hard to find a parallel. 



THE KING'S NEIGHBOURS. 247 

Indeed, one is at times inclined to be impatient of 
his great patience ; to think that for his people's sake 
his hand should have been heavier upon Guthorm and 
Hasting, when they were in his power; to wish that 
he had not left the task of incorporating all England 
in one kingdom to his successors. We are all tempted 
in our secret hearts to believe that the great Italian 
was right in putting mercy, courteousness, truthful- 
ness, in the category of luxuries which princes can 
only afford to use with the most guarded moderation. 

" The present manner of living," Machiavelli 
writes (cap. xiv.), " is so different from the way that 
ought to be taken, that he who neglects what is done to 
follow what ought to be done, will sooner learn how 
to ruin than how to preserve himself. For a tender 
man, and one that desires to be honest in everything, 
must needs run a great hazard among so many of a 
contrary principle. Wherefore it is necessary for a 
prince that is willing to subsist to harden himself, 
and learn to be good or otherwise according to the 
exigencies of his affairs." And again (cap. xix.), 
" How honourable it is for a prince to keep his word, 
and act rather with integrity than craft, I suppose 
every one understands. Nevertheless experience has 
shown in our times that those princes who have not 
pinned themselves up to that punctuality and pre- 
ciseness have done great things, and by their cunning 
and subtlety not only circumvented and pierced the 
brains of those with whom they had to deal, but have 
overcome and been too hard for those who have been 
so superstitiously exact. Nor was there ever any 



248 ALFRED THE GREAT. 

prince that wanted lawful pretence to justify his 
breach of promise. And men are so simple in their 
temper, and so submissive to their present necessities, 
that he that is neat and cleanly in his collusions shall 
never want people to practice them upon. A prince, 
therefore, is not obliged to have all the f orementioned 
good qualities in reality, but it is necessary to have 
them in appearance; nay, I will be bold to affirm, 
that having them actually, and employing them on 
all occasions, they are extremely prejudicial. Where- 
as, having them only in appearance, they turn to bet- 
ter account. It is honourable to seem mild, and mer- 
ciful, and courteous, and religious, and sincere, and 
indeed to be so, provided your mind be so rectified 
and prepared, that you can act quite contrary on oc- 
casion." 

But the more attentively we study Alfred's life, 
the more clearly does the practical wisdom of his 
methods of government justify itself by results. Of 
strong princes, with minds " rectified and prepared " 
on the Machiavellian model, the world has had more 
than enough, who have won kingdoms for themselves, 
and used them for themselves, and so left a bitter in- 
heritance to their children and their people. It is 
well that, here and there in history, we can point to 
a king whose reign has proved that the highest suc- 
cess in government is not only compatible with, but 
dependent upon, the highest Christian morality. 



THE KING'S FOE. 249 



CHAPTEK XX. 



THE KING S FOE. 



" Frowardness is in his heart, he deviseth mischief con- 
tinually ; he soweth discord. 

" Therefore shall his calamity come suddenly ; suddenly shall 
he be broken without remedy." 

Lsr the middle of his great reforms, when all Eng- 
land was thrilling with new life, and order and light 
were beginning to penetrate into the most out-of-the- 
way corners of the kingdom, the war-cloud gathered 
again, and Alfred had once more to arm. It was 
against the old enemy, " the army," as the chroniclers 
style it — what was left of it, at least, after three years 
of precarious fighting and plundering in France and 
Elanders, with a huge accession of recruits from the 
wild spirits of all the tribes whose struggles were dis- 
tracting Europe. The anxiety with which the Eng- 
lish watched their old foes appears from the care with 
which their doings are noted year by year in the 
Saxon Chronicle. Plegmund, or whoever was the 
editor, had clearly an uneasy feeling that Alfred and 
his realm had not seen the last of them. So we hear 
how they went up the Meuse, and plundered from 



250 ALFRED THE GREAT. 

the Meuse to the Scheldt, and from thence crossed to 
Amiens in 884, the year that Pope Martin of blessed 
memory died. In the next year Charles the Bald 
was killed by a wild boar while hunting, and his death 
was the signal for renewed activity amongst the 
Northmen. Another great fleet and army of Pagans 
noAV came from Germany into the country of the Old 
Saxons, and were there defeated in two battles. We 
have already seen how a division of " the army " in 
the same year tried their fortune in Kent, and went 
back to the Continent wiser and poorer pirates. 

In 886 " the army," reunited again, sailed and 
marched up the Seine, and laid siege to Paris, or 
rather to the island on which lay all that was left of 
the city. For a whole year the Northmen lay about 
Paris, but " by the merciful favour of God, and the 
brave defence of the citizens, could never force their 
way inside the walls." Indeed, it would seem that 
they never wrested the bridge from the besieged. At 
the end of a year the siege was abandoned, and " the 
army," passing under the bridge, which they had 
failed to destroy or take, went up the Seine to its 
junction with the Marne, and then up that river as 
far as Chezy, where they formed one of their forti- 
fied camps. In the following year, on the death of 
Charles (nephew of Charles the Bald), the unhappy 
kingdom of the Franks was broken into five portions, 
Arnulf his nephew, who had in fact usurped the 
throne in the last few weeks of his uncle's life, keep- 
ing the Rhine provinces, with the nominal title of 
Emperor. The new kings were soon quarrelling, and, 



THE KING'S FOE. 251 

as the Saxon Chronicle records, " held their lands in 
great discord, and fought two general battles, and 
oft and many times laid waste the country, and each 
repeatedly drove out the other." 

Thus the descendants, legitimate and illegitimate, 
of Charlemagne fought over the shreds of his monster 
empire, exhausting its strength in their selfish strug- 
gles (" battles of the kites and crows," as Milton con- 
temptuously summed up the history of similar do- 
ings on the smaller arena of England, amongst the 
Saxon princes in the previous century), while, on 
every frontier, Saracens, Hungarians, and Scandi- 
navians were hemming it in, and cutting it short. In 
the very heart of it a host of Northmen were holding 
the richest portions, and carrying rapine and insult 
to the gates of the city where, only fifty years before, 
the Paladins of Charlemagne had been holding their 
great pageants. 

The miseries of the next few years in those fair 
lands are scarcely to be paralleled in modern history. 
In 891, however, Arnulf had established his own au- 
thority in the Rhine provinces, and was able to gather 
a strong army of Eastern Franks, Saxons, and Bavar- 
ians, and lead them against the common enemy. Af- 
ter some reverses, he surprised the Danes in the neigh- 
bourhood of Louvaine, and defeated them so signally 
that the Low Countries were cleared of them alto- 
gether, and suffered no further, except from occa- 
sional flying visits of a few galleys. The remnants of 
the broken bands fled southward, attracted towards 
" the army " of Hasting, who was now holding the 



252 ALFRED THE GREAT. 

town of Amiens, and living on the neighbouring dis- 
tricts, having defeated Odo, the king of the Western 
Franks, in several attempts to dislodge him. Another 
year of Danish occupation brought a terrible famine 
on the whole country, and effected that in which King 
Odo had failed. Hasting could hold Amiens no 
longer, and moved with " the army " to the coast, en- 
camping about Boulogne; to which place also gravi- 
tated the remains of the host which had escaped from 
Louvaine, and no doubt all the rascaldom of the em- 
pire. It is probable that Hasting's communications 
with his countrymen on the Norfolk and Suffolk 
coasts had never been interrupted, and that the old 
pirate knew well how rich and prosperous the island 
had become since he had sailed away from Fulham 
some thirteen years before. He knew also something 
of the strength and temper of the King whom he 
would have to meet there, and, had a choice been 
open to him, would doubtless have preferred some 
other venture. But behind him lay a famine-stricken 
land ; round him a larger muster of reckless fighters 
than any he had yet led; before him, within sight, 
at an easy day's sail, the shores of a land on which no 
hostile foot had been planted for eight long years. 
So there, on the cliffs above Boulogne, Hasting, like 
a leader of the same type in the first years of this 
nineteenth century, planned the invasion of Alfred's 
kingdom, and waited for a favourable autumn wind 
to carry over his fleet. 

Such are, briefly, the details which we gather from 
the chroniclers of the events which preceded, and 



THE KING'S FOE. 253 

brought about, the third great invasion which Alfred 
had to meet. 

His great antagonist in this last war was already in 
the decline of life, and had grown gray in crime. Of 
all the leaders of the hosts of heathen Northmen, who 
were the scourge of Western Europe in the ninth cen- 
tury, he stands out as the most ruthless and false, as 
well as one of the ablest and most successful. " The 
worst man that ever was born, and who has done most 
harm in our age/' is the summary of his character 
and career in the old French chronicler — 

" Le plus mal hom qui une nasquist, 
E qui al siecle plus mal fist." 

We know something already of his later life since 
879. The story of his earlier doings owes probably 
much of its romance to the rhyming chroniclers who 
sung of his atrocities, but is clear enough in general 
outline to claim a place in history, and a moment's 
attention from those who would rightly appreciate 
our hero-king. 

The great and indecisive battle of Fontenoy near 
Auxerre, where the grandsons of Charlemagne 
brought their rival claims to the decision of the sword 
in the year 841, exhausted the empire, and left it 
open to the onslaughts of the Northmen, and the free- 
booters of all races who swelled their ranks. Within 
five years of that great slaughter a formidable army 
of these marauders were already in the heart of 
France, and had sacked and burnt the town of Am- 
boise, and plundered the district between the Loire 
and Cher. About the year of Alfred's birth they laid 



254 ALFRED THE GREAT. 

siege to Tours, from which they were repulsed by the 
gallantry of the citizens, assisted by the miraculous 
aid of Saint Martin. It is at this siege that Hasting 
first appears as a leader. 

His birth is uncertain. In some accounts he is said 
to have been the son of a peasant of Troyes, the cap- 
ital of Champagne, and to have forsworn his faith, 
and joined the Danes in his early youth, from an in- 
herent lust of battle and plunder. In others he is 
called the son of the jarl Atte. But, whatever his 
origin, by the middle of the century he had estab- 
lished his title to lead the Northern hordes in those 
fierce forays which helped to shatter the Carlovingian 
Empire to fragments. After the retreat from Tours 
he and the Viking Biorn — surnamed " Cote de Fer " 
from an iron plate which was said to cover the only 
vulnerable part of his body — established themselves 
in a fortified camp on the Seine, and from thence 
plundered the whole of the neighbouring country, 
until it was too exhausted to maintain them longer. 
When the banks of the Seine were exhausted, the 
leaders separated, and, while Biorn pushed up the 
river again, Hasting put out to sea, entered the Loire, 
and established a camp on a marshy island not far 
from its mouth. Here he remained for some time, 
fulfilling his mission while anything was left to plun- 
der. When the land was bare, leaving the despoiled 
provinces he again put to sea, and, sailing southwards 
still, pushed up the Tagus and Guadalquiver, and 
ravaged the neighbourhoods of Lisbon and Seville. 
But no settlement in Spain was possible at this time. 



THE KING'S FOE. 255 

The Peninsula had lately had for Caliph Abdalrah- 
man the Second, called El Mouzaffer, " The Victo- 
rious/' and the vigour of his rule had made the Ara- 
bian kingdom in Spain the most efficient power for 
defence in Europe. Hasting soon recoiled from the 
Spanish coasts, and returned to his old haunts. 

The leaders of the Danes in England, the Sidrocs 
and Hinguar and Hubba, had, as we have seen, a spe- 
cial delight in the destruction of churches and monas- 
teries, mingling a fierce religious fanaticism with 
their thirst for battle and plunder. This exceeding 
bitterness of the ^Northmen may be fairly laid in 
great measure to the account of the thirty years of 
proselytising warfare, which Charlemagne had waged 
in Saxony, and along all the northern frontier of his 
empire. The boldest spirits amongst all those Ger- 
man tribes, who scorned to turn renegades at the 
sword's point, had drifted away northwards with a 
tradition of deepest hatred to the Cross, and the forms 
of civilization which it carried in its wake. The time 
for vengeance came before one generation had died 
out, and the fairest provinces of the empire were now 
paying, by the burning of churches, the sack of ab- 
beys, the destruction of libraries, and the blood of 
their children, for the merciless proselytising of the 
imperial armies. The brood of so-called religious 
wars have brought more ills on the poor old world 
than all others that have ever been hatched on her 
broad and patient bosom — a brood that never misses 
coming home to roost. 

Hasting seems to have been filled with a double 



256 ALFRED THE GREAT. 

portion of this spirit, which he had indulged through- 
out his career in the most inveterate hatred to priests 
and holy places. It was probably this, coupled with a 
certain weariness — commonplace murder and sacri- 
lege having grown tame and lost their charm — which 
incited him to the most daring of all his exploits, a 
direct attack on the head of Christendom, and the 
sacred city. 

Hasting then, about the year 860, planned an at- 
tack on Rome, and the proposal was well received by 
his followers. Sailing again round Spain, and pillag- 
ing on their way both on the Spanish and Moorish 
coasts, they entered the Mediterranean, and, steering 
for Italy, landed in the bay of Spezzia, near the town 
of Luna. Luna was the place where the great quar- 
ries of the Carra marble had been worked ever since 
the times of the Csesars. The city itself was, it is 
said, in great part built of white marble, and the 
candentia mcenia Lunce deceived Hasting into the be- 
lief that he was actually before Rome : so he sat down 
before the town which he had failed to surprise. The 
hope of taking it by assault was soon abandoned, but 
Hasting obtained his end by guile. Feigning a mor- 
tal illness, he sent messages to the citizens offering to 
leave all his accumulated plunder to the Church if 
they would allow his burial in consecrated ground. 
The offer was accepted, and a procession of North- 
men, bearing and following the bier of Hasting, was 
admitted within the walls. The rites of the Church 
were duly performed, but, at the moment when the 
body was about to be lowered into the grave, Hasting 



THE KING'S FOE. 257 

sprang from the bier, and, seizing a sword which had 
been consealed near him, slew the officiating bishop. 
His followers found their arms at the same moment ; 
the priests were massacred, the gates thrown open, 
and the city taken and spoiled. Luna never recovered 
its old prosperity after the raid of the Northmen, and 
in Dante's time had fallen into utter decay. But 
Hasting's career in Italy ended with the sack of 
Luna ; and, giving up all hope of attacking Rome, he 
re-embarked with the spoil of the town, the most 
beautiful of the women, and all youths who could be 
used as soldiers or rowers. His fleet was wrecked 
on the south coast of France on its return westward, 
and all the spoil lost ; but the devil had work yet for 
Hasting and his men, who got ashore in sufficient 
numbers to recompense themselves for their losses by 
the plunder of Provence. 

In these parts he remained until 863. In that year 
he received an embassy from Charles the Bald, 
headed by the Abbot of St. Denis, and agreed to re- 
ceive baptism for a large sum of money, and the ces- 
sion to him in fee of the district of Chartres, which 
he was to hold as the king's vassal. He seems now to 
have lived quietly till the year 876, when he joined 
the army which Charles the Simple was sending 
against Rollo. Hasting undertook a mission to the 
camp of his brother pirate on the banks of the Eure, 
bearing the king's offer of fiefs, and a permanent set- 
tlement to the Danish leader and his army. His mis- 
sion was unsuccessful, and finding himself suspected 
of foul dealing, and in consequent danger, on his re- 
17 



258 ALFRED THE GREAT. 

turn to the French army, he left his adopted home, 
and returned to his old life. How he had spent the 
intervening years we have partly heard already. 

Guthrum, his old companion in arms, died in 890, 
and a feeling of restlessness and rebellion against 
the steady, constant pressure of the orderly kingdom 
of their liege lord was creeping through the coasts 
of East Anglia which were most remote from Alfred's 
border. Eohric was either unable, or unwilling, to 
restrain the seafaring portion of his people ; and so 
the encouragement was given to Hasting and " the 
army " which brought them eighteen months later to 
the hills above Boulogne, and cost England and Al- 
fred three years of war. 



THE THIRD WAVE. 259 



CHAPTEK XXL 



THE THIRD WAVE, 



" Associate yourselves, and ye shall be broken in pieces ; gather 
yourselves together, "^and it shall come to nought : for God 
is with us." 

In the autumn of 893 the great army broke up 
from its Boulogne camp. Hasting had now matured 
all his plans, and collected a fleet large enough to 
transport the whole of his troops across the narrow 
sea. The ships, Ethelwerd says, were built at Bou- 
logne ; at any rate they were procured by some means 
in such abundance, that when the army embarked, 
" they came over in one passage, horses and all. 7 ' The 
first detachment, filling 250 ships, were sent on by 
Hasting to seize the nearest point. They steered 
straight across the Channel, and landed without op- 
position at the mouth of the little river Bother, about 
seven miles west of Dungeness. The Chronicles call 
the river Limen (or Lymne) ; but the position of 
Appledore, the undoubted site of the first Danish 
camp of this year, on the banks of the Bother, seems 
to decide the question as to the identity of the stream 
up which " they towed their ships for four miles, to 



260 ALFRED THE GREAT. 

the borders of trie Andreds Weald." This was a for- 
est, 120 miles long, and thirty miles in breadth, 
stretching from Romney Marsh to the eastern part 
of Hampshire. Here the Danes stormed a small fort 
garrisoned by a few churlish men, and, without en- 
countering further resistance, fixed upon Appledore 
as the site for a permanent camp, which they forth- 
with set to work to establish. 

Hasting himself was not long after them. He sailed 
with his own immediate followers, in eighty ships, 
passed up the Channel, round the North Foreland, 
and into the East Swale, the branch of the Medway 
which separates the Isle of Sheppey from the main- 
land. Some ten miles up the Swale a little creek 
runs south, on which the market-town of Milton, cele- 
brated for its native oysters, now stands. This is, no 
doubt, the Middleton of the Saxon Chronicle, where 
Hasting now " wrought himself a strong fortress." 
Remains of fortifications in the neighbouring marshes 
are still pointed out as the work of the Danes. Be- 
tween the two camps, which would be some twenty- 
six miles apart as the crow flies, lay the Andreds 
Weald, offering immediate shelter in the event of a 
reverse to either wing of the army, and direct com- 
munication with the camp of their comrades. Through 
the recesses of the great wood they could penetrate 
westward into the heart of Wessex, and approach 
within a few miles of Winchester or Reading without 
quitting cover. Both camps were established on the 
banks of rivers, navigable to the Danish galleys, so 
that, if the worst came, there were always means of 



THE THIRD WAVE. 261 

retreat for any who might escape. This position was 
a very formidable one, and admirably chosen for the 
ends Hasting had in view. The strength of the camps 
themselves is proved by the fact, that Alfred never 
attempted to storm either of them. 

The King was now in his forty-fifth year, and had 
learnt much in the wars of his youth and early man- 
hood. As we might expect, the tactics and method of 
defence adopted by him in his mature years offer a 
marked contrast to the impetuous gallantry of his 
early campaigns. His first act seems to have been, to 
send his son Edward, with some light troops, to the 
neighbourhood of the two camps, more for the pur- 
pose of watching than fighting ; his next, to strengthen 
the garrisons of his forts. Then, putting himself at 
the head of that portion of his subjects whose turn it 
was for military service, he marched into Kent, and 
took up a strong position, from whence he could best 
watch both the camps. The name of the place where 
Alfred laid out his camp is not given in any chroni- 
cler. Possibly it was actually in the Andreds Weald, 
and had no name, for it is described (by Florence of 
Worcester) as " a place naturally very strong, be- 
cause it was surrounded on all sides by water, high 
rocks and overhanging woods." And now at once the 
value of the King's army reforms became clear. The 
Danes felt the presence of a foe stronger and better 
disciplined than themselves, whose vigilance was un- 
ceasing. The watching army never dwindled, and 
the invaders dared not leave their entrenchments ex- 
cept in small bands. These, however, were active and 



262 ALFRED THE GREAT. 

mischievous. They stole out fpr plunder " along the 
weald in bands and troops, by whichever border was 
for the time without forces." Then the alarm would 
be given by the Etheling Edward, and the marauders 
were " sought out by bands from the King's army, or 
from the burghs." Thus a desultory warfare con- 
tinued " almost every day, either by day or night," 
as the Saxon Chronicle describes it, until the theatre 
of war is suddenly and completely changed, and the 
head-quarters of both sides, and the scene of opera- 
tions, pass over to the north of the Thames. 

It was now nearly a year from Hasting's landing, 
and no help had come to him as yet from the Danes 
settled in East Anglia and Northumbria. It is clear 
that he had been intriguing with them, for Alfred 
had had to exact a renewal of their oaths, and even to 
take fresh hostages from the East Angles. Now, as 
the desultory war dragged on, week after week, and 
month after month, the Danes of the northern king- 
dom got more restless and excited, and Hasting, hop- 
ing much from this rekindling of the old race-hatred, 
and seeing no chance of doing anything more in his 
present position, resolved to abandon his two camps 
on the south of the Thames, and cross into East An- 
glia. He had never ventured yet out of his fortified 
camps in force, but, now that the change of base had 
been determined on, it was worth while playing for a 
large stake. Accordingly, Hasting sent off his ships 
to a rendezvous at Bemfleet, on the Essex coast, and, 
starting with the whole of his land-forces, pushed by 
Alfred's camp, through the forest, and into Hamp- 



THE THIRD WAVE. 263 

shire, where he met one of his marauding parties, 
laden with spoil. With this booty, and what he could 
gather himself in his rapid march, he now turned 
northwards, hoping to get to the fords of the Thames 
before Alfred could overtake him. In this he was 
disappointed. The King and the Etheling Edward 
caught the Danish army at Farnham, and forced 
them to fight. In this first general action of the war 
the Saxons were completely victorious. Hasting's 
army lost the whole of their plunder, and the horses 
they had brought with them from France. One of 
their kings (Dr. Pauli suggests Biorn) was desper- 
ately wounded, and his condition impeded their 
flight. They made good their retreat to the Thames, 
however; but, either from panic or want of knowl- 
edge, struck it at a place where there was no ford, 
and, besides the great slaughter at Farnham, numbers 
of them were lost in crossing the river. The first 
rally they made was in an island, at the junction of 
the Thames and Colne, called Thorney Island. Here 
Hasting halted, and his ships probably brought him 
supplies, and the broken bands of his army joined 
him. But Alfred was on his track, and in a short 
time the island was completely invested by Saxon 
troops. It had thus become only a question of days. 
If the blockade could have been maintained, Hasting 
and the army must have been soon at Alfred's mercy. 
Unhappily the besieged, by the aid of their ships, 
were better supplied than the besiegers; and, more- 
over, the time of service of the army which fought at 
Farnham had expired, and the reliefs had to be 



264 ALFRED THE GREAT. 

brought up at this critical moment. Alfred was him- 
self engaged in bringing up the relieving force, when 
news reached him which induced him at once to 
change the whole of his plans, and to abandon for the 
time the hope of crushing his foe once for all in Thor- 
ney Island. 

Although Hasting had suffered so severely in his 
march and flight, the sagacity which prompted the 
movement was at once justified. Scarcely had the 
beaten army appeared to the north of the Thames 
when the Danes of the east coast, from Essex to 
Northumberland, unable any longer to resist the con- 
tagion of battle, broke into open hostility, and rushed 
to the aid of their robber brethren. They hastily 
gathered a large fleet, which sailed at once for the 
southern coasts of Wessex, for the purpose of creating 
a diversion, and raising the blockade of Hasting at 
the mouth of the Come. A hundred of these ships 
pushed up the Exe, while forty more made their way 
round (the Saxon Chronicle says " by the north ") 
into the British Channel. Each fleet carried an 
armed force besides the crews; and Exeter in the 
south, and some fortress on the north coast of Devon- 
shire, were formally invested. This was the news 
which reached Alfred on his march towards Essex, 
and it had all the effect which Hasting had looked 
for. Alfred at once resolved to march westward him- 
self. The Southern Welsh who dwelt in Cornwall 
might follow the example of the East Anglians and 
Northumbrians, and join the invaders, and the whole 
realm be in a blaze again, as it was in 879. In any 



THE THIRD WAVE. 265 

case lie could not leave Somerset and Wilts, probably 
the richest and most populous parts of the whole of 
Wessex, and those in which his own property was 
chiefly situate, open to attack from the west. 

The blockade of Thorney Island was therefore 
abandoned at once, and Hasting, with the wreck of 
the two armies which had garrisoned the camps of 
Appledore and Milton, escaped to Bemfleet. Here he 
found his ships lying, and his wife and sons, and the 
heavy baggage of his army, already occupying the old 
fortifications which had been thrown up there by 
some Danish leader, if not by himself, nine years be- 
fore. His ranks were soon recruited, by bands of 
Danes from the outlying parts of the kingdom. He 
lost no time in his trenches, but started at once on a 
plundering expedition into Mercia* 

Before starting by forced marches for the west, 
Alfred had divided his forces, and sent a strong body, 
under the command probably of his son Edward, who 
had greatly distinguished himself in the Farnham 
fight, to reinforce Ethelred, who was holding London 
with the Mercian troops. That able and energetic 
leader immediately planned an attack on the camp at 
Bemfleet, in accordance with the wishes of the citi- 
zens of London, who could not brook the constant 
menace of such a hornets' nest in their immediate 
neighbourhood. So Ethelred marched suddenly upon 
Bemfleet camp, and, for the first time in these wars 
the Danes were thoroughly beaten behind their own 
fortifications, and in a position of their own choosing. 
The camp was stormed, and all the booty found there 



266 ALFRED THE GREAT. 

taken, and amongst the prisoners were the wife and 
two sons of Hasting. There is a passage in the Saxon 
Chronicle, and in Florence of Worcester, to the effect 
that these boys had shortly before been sent as hos- 
tages to Alfred, who had caused them to be baptized, 
he and Ethelred acting as their sponsors, after which 
they had been sent back to their father. And now 
again Alfred restored them and their mother to his 
faithless enemy, but the spoil was shared amongst the 
citizens of London and Ethelred's garrison. The 
Danish fleet was also captured at Bemfleet, and all 
the serviceable vessels were taken to London or Roch- 
ester, while the remnant were broken up or burnt. 
Easting's means of retreat were thus destroyed, but 
the disaster only seems to have braced the nerves of 
the old pirate for greater efforts. He returned to 
the neighbourhood of Bemfleet, collected the rem- 
nants of the army, received large reinforcements 
again from East Anglia, and entrenched another 
camp at Shobury, some ten miles east of his former 
position. From thence he marched out at the head 
of another strong force, along the northern bank of 
the Thames, and then up the Severn valley, thus car- 
rying fire and sword into the heart of Ethelred's own 
country. Bis intention may have been to relieve the 
Danish forces in Devonshire, and to cut Alfred off 
from his supplies and base. If so, he was quickly and 
completely foiled. Ethelred hastened down to the 
threatened district, and sent summonses to all the 
neighbouring king's aldermen and thanes. The 
vigour and alacrity of the response are very marked. 



THE THIRD WAVE. 267 

'" Then Ethelred," the Saxon Chronicle says, " and 
Ethelhelm the alderman (of Wilts), and Ethelnoth 
the alderman (of Somerset), and the king's thanes 
who were then at home in the fortified places, gath- 
ered forces from every town east of the Parret, and 
as well west as east of Selwood, and also north of the 
Thames, and west of the Severn, and also some part 
of the North Welsh people." Hasting was now in 
the district where Guthrum had attempted a settle- 
ment, and which had been the scene of the campaign 
of Ethandune. The country knew well what to ex- 
pect from the tender mercies of the Dane, and rose as 
one man, without a thought of the established courses, 
or whose turn it might be for the regular three 
months' service. Hasting met the rising by turning 
northwards, abandoning all hope of penetrating Wes- 
sex. He might look for more encouragement, at least 
for less enthusiasm of resistance, on the North Welsh 
border ; so he made no halt till he reached Buttington 
in Montgomeryshire, on the banks of the Severn, 
where he entrenched himself and waited for Ethelred. 
Buttington is a border parish ; OfTa's dyke, which 
runs through it, is still the boundary between Shrop- 
shire and Montgomeryshire. There are several earth- 
works still to be seen in the neighbourhood, and some 
thirty years ago a vast deposit of human bones was 
discovered in digging the foundations of the schools 
there, near the parish church. 

Ethelred on his arrival divided his forces, so that 
he might watch both banks of the Severn, and beset 
Hasting's camp very straitly 7 m that no succours or 



268 ALFRED THE GREAT. 

supplies could reach the besieged. " When they had 
now sat there many weeks on both sides the river," 
the Chronicle tells up, " then were the enemy dis- 
tressed for want of food, and having eaten a great 
part of their horses, being starved with hunger, they 
went out against the men who were encamped on the 
east bank of the river, and fought against them. And 
the Christians had the victory. And Ordeh, a king's 
thane, and many other king's thanes were slain, and 
of the Danish men there was very great slaughter 
made. And that part which got away thence was 
saved by flight." 

Hasting saved himself by crossing the Mercian 
border over the Watling Street, falling back on a 
part of East Anglia far removed from Alfred's in- 
fluence, and which had stubbornlv resisted all but the 
semblance of Christianity. Either the encourage- 
ment which he found here, in the shape of recruits 
and sympathy, tempted him to renew the struggle 
in the north of Mercia, or he may have thought that 
his best chance of succouring his allies in Devonshire 
lay in piercing to the west coast at some point where 
his great fleet, already in those seas, could fetch him 
off, and land him on the shores of the Bristol Chan- 
nel. At any rate, after removing the Danish women 
and children, and all their possessions, and such ships 
as were left them, from Shobury to the island of Mer- 
sea — at the mouth of the Blackwater, a few miles 
south of Colchester, a safer spot, and twenty miles 
further from London — and committing the protection 
of the settlement to the East Anglians of those parts, 



THE THIRD WAVE. 269 

now his open allies, Hasting went back again with a 
fresh army, " at one stretch, day and night," says the 
Saxon Chronicle, and appeared suddenly before Ches- 
ter. The royal town was not surprised, and was held 
by a strong garrison ; so Hasting swept the country of 
cattle, killed the few people he found outside the 
walls, eat up or destroyed all the crops, which were 
still standing in the late autumn, and then, after two 
days, retired into the peninsula of Wirral, and there 
went into winter quarters. Alfred meanwhile had 
compelled the Danes to raise the sieges of Exeter and 
the fortress in ]STorth Devon, and had driven them to 
their ships ; but as the fleet still hung about the coasts 
of Devonshire and South Wales (Cornwall), he did 
not think it safe to leave the far west for the present, 
being no doubt well satisfied with the reports which 
reached him of the vigorous way in which Hasting 
had been met when he threatened Central Wessex. 
So the King wintered in Devonshire. 

The first eventful year of the war was now ended, 
and on every side the enormous increase of power in 
the nation consequent on Alfred's rule had proved it- 
self. The pagan army had not only been outfought, 
as in past years at Ashdown and Ethandune, but out- 
marched and outmanoeuvred by Alfred and Ethelred, 
and the Saxon and Mercian levies. They had not 
taken a single place of any importance, while one of 
their entrenched camps had been stormed, and four 
others abandoned. The issue could not be doubtful, 
unless some great reinforcements came to Hasting 
from over the sea ; but the old pirate was still at the 



270 ALFRED THE GREAT. 

head of a formidable army, and had opened up a good 
recruiting ground on the east coasts. There was no 
room for carelessness or foolhardiness in the coming 
spring. 

The campaign of 895 was probably opened by 
Ethelred, or some Mercian earl, who made a success- 
ful dash at Hasting in the Wirral peninsula, and 
carried off all the store of cattle and provision which 
he had accumulated, for the Saxon Chronicle notices 
this loss as the reason why he broke up his camp 
there. So the Danes took the field, and, avoiding 
Chester and Mercia for the time, marched into Xorth 
Wales. Here, before Ethelred could come at them, 
they collected a large booty in the valleys, and then 
retreated into J^orthumbria, " fearing," says Flor- 
ence, " to return through Mercia." Dr. Pauli gath- 
ers, from an obscure passage in Ethelward's Chroni- 
cle, that on his march southwards Hasting was inter- 
cepted by Ethelnoth at Stamford, and that a battle 
was fought there. In any case, in the course of the 
summer or autumn, the main body of the Danes ar- 
rived safely in the isle of Mersea, and received their 
women and children from the safe-keeping of their 
East Anglian allies. 

Here they were joined in the autumn by the fleet 
and the remains of the army which had been in 
Devonshire. Foiled at all points by Alfred himself, 
and driven to their ships, they had sailed out of the 
Exe, and on their voyage eastward had made a sud- 
den descent on the Sussex coast near Chichester. But 
the garrison and citizens turned out and fought them, 



THE THIRD WAVE. 271 



a 



slaying many hundreds, and taking some of their 
ships/' But Hasting was not yet beaten, and, before 
Alfred had time to organize an attack on Mersea, 
put all on board his fleet and sailed boldly up the 
Thames and the Lea, and once more fortified himself 
in a strong camp on the latter river, only twenty 
miles from London. And so the second year of the 
war ended. 

896 opened with a reverse to the Saxon arms. 
Encouraged by the success of the attack on the 
Eemfleet camp two years before, and perhaps by the 
exploit of the citizens of Chichester in the last 
autumn, the men of London and their garrison 
marched out to attack Hasting in his camp on the 
Lea, without waiting the arrival of Alfred or Eth- 
elred. They were beaten by the Danes, and re- 
treated on London, with the loss of four king's thanes. 
The King now came up, and established himself be- 
tween Hasting's camp and the city, to protect the 
people while they reaped their crops. While en- 
camped for this purpose, Alfred, riding one day along 
the river, discovered a place where the stream 
might be easily diverted or obstructed, so that it 
would be impossible for the Danes to pass down with 
their fleet. He set to the work at once, and at the 
same time began to build two forts, one on each side 
of the Lea, at the point he had selected for diverting 
the stream. Hasting did not wait for the catastrophe. 
Confiding the women and children again to the care 
of the East Anglians, and abandoning his camp and 
fleet, he marched away again north-west, and es- 



272 ALFRED THE GREAT. 

tablished himself for the winter near Bridgnorth 
(Cwatbridge) in Shropshire, distancing the force 
which Alfred sent in pursuit. The Londoners took 
possession of the camp and fleet in great triumph. 
Those ships which they could not bring away were 
burnt, and all which were " stalworth " they brought 
down to London. And so ended the third and last 
year of Alfred's last war. 

In the spring of 897 Hasting broke up his last 
camp on English soil. His army was now composed 
of Northumbrian and East Anglian Danes, as well 
as of his followers who had embarked from Bou- 
logne three years before. The former marched 
back to their own homes, while Hasting, with the 
remains of his own followers, felt his way back to 
some place on the east coast. Here the women and 
children rejoined them, and the baffled pirate leader, 
getting together ships enough to carry him and his 
fortunes, " went southward over sea to the Seine." 

" Thanks be to God ! " the Chronicle sums up, 
" the army had not utterly broken down the English 
nation : but during those three years it was much 
more broken down by the mortality which raged 
amongst cattle and amongst men ; and most of all by 
this, that many of the most eminent of the King's 
servants in the land died during the three years, some 
of whom were — Swithulf, bishop of Kochester, and 
Ceolmund, alderman of Kent, and Beorthulf, alder- 
man of Hants, and Ealherd, bishop of Dorchester, 
and Eadulf the king's thane in Sussex, and Beorn- 
wulf the wicreeve of Winchester, and Ecgulf the 



THE THIRD WAVE. 273 

king's horse-thane, and many also besides these, 
though I have named the most famous." A goodly 
list of men who could ill be spared; most of them, 
too, we may note, officers in the districts which had 
borne the brunt of the invasion. 

The embers of the fire which Hasting had kindled 
continued to smoulder after he had left the island. 
His Northumbrian and East Anglian allies could not 
at once give up the excitement of the rover's life, 
which was bred in their blood, and of which they had 
now again tasted after so many years of abstinence. 
They were chiefly dwellers by the sea, and now, aban- 
doning all attempts at inland warfare, fitted out 
small squadrons of their swift vessels, called " oescs," 
and in these cruised off the southern coasts of Wessex, 
inflicting much local damage, and greatly exas- 
perating Alfred and his people. In the course of 
the autumn Alfred's new galleys swept the whole of 
these marauders off the sea, capturing twenty of 
their " oases " at one time or another. But the 
only detailed account we have of an action between 
the King's ships and the pirates suggests rather 
that the Danes still retained their mastery as sail- 
ors, and that Alfred and his new ships, with their 
motley crews, only prevailed against them by sheer 
weight and superior numbers. 

The story is in the Saxon Chronicle as follows : — 
" Some time in the same year there came six ships to 
Wight, and there did much harm, as well in Devon 
and elsewhere along the sea-coast. Then the King 
commanded nine of his new ships to go thither, and 
18 



274 ALFRED THE GREAT. 

they blockaded the passage from the port to the 
outer sea. Then went the pirates with three of their 
ships out against them ; and three lay in the upper 
part of the port dry, and the crews were gone out of 
them on shore. Then the King's ships took two of 
the three ships at the outer port, and killed the crews, 
and the other ship escaped. In that also all the men 
were killed except five, and it escaped because the 
King's ships got aground. They indeed were 
aground very disadvantageously, for three lay on that 
side where the Danish ships were aground, and all 
the rest upon the other side, so that no one of them 
could get to the others. But when the water had 
ebbed many furlongs from the ships, then the Danish 
men went from their three ships to the other three 
which were left by the tide on their side, and fought 
against them there." " Then might you have seen," 
says the Chronicle of Huntingdon, " the English 
people of the six ships looking at the battle, and 
unable to bear them help, beating their breasts with 
their hands, and tearing their hair with their nails " 
— a grim little picture of the doings of the ancestors 
of the Blakes and Nelsons. " There were slain 
Lucumon, the king's reeve, and Wulfheard the 
Frisian, and Abbse the Frisian, and Ethelhere the 
Frisian, and Ethelferth the king's neatherd ; and of 
all the men, Frisians and English, 72, and of the 
Danish men, 120. Then, however, the flood-tide 
came to the Danish ships before the English could 
get theirs off: they therefore rowed away. Never- 
less, they were so damaged that they could not row 



THE THIRD WAVE. 275 

round Sussex ; and there the sea cast two of them on 
shore, and the crews were led to the King at Win- 
chester ; and he commanded them to be there hanged. 
And the men who were in the single ship came to 
East Anglia sorely wounded." 

It appears that Alfred also hanged all that fell into 
his hands of the crews of the remainder of the twenty 
pirate vessels. Some of his biographers are inclined 
to gloss, or extenuate, the King's severity in these last 
dealings with the pirates. It seems to me the most 
wise and merciful course he could have taken. The 
war was now virtually at an end, and, it was nec- 
essary to impress upon the loose seafaring population 
of Northumbria and East Anglia that they could 
only continue it in small marauding excursions on 
their own account at the peril of their necks. That 
the King, at this triumphant crisis of his life, as well 
as on every other occasion, was lenient to his foes, 
and scrupulously careful to act up to the high 
standard he had set himself, is abundantly clear 
by the fact that he exacted no penalty whatever from 
^Northumbria, and from East Anglia only annexed 
on a corner of Essex. It would have been easy for 
him and Ethelred to have marched from Watling 
Street to the Forth, and the Danish under-kings were 
practically at his mercy. But they, and the bulk 
of their people, had taken no active part with Hast- 
ing, and the King would not punish them for want 
of power to control the most turbulent of their people, 
in such times, and under such temptations. So there 
was no reckoning for the past ; only, as they could not 



276 ALFRED THE GREAT. 

hinder their nominal subjects from turning pirates, 
the King must read a lesson to such persons. That 
of Winchester was enough. There is no hint of any 
further piracy during Alfred's reign. 



THE KING'S HOME. 277 



CHAPTER XXII. 

THE KING'S HOME. 

"Blessed is the man that doth meditate good things in wis- 
dom. 

" He shall pitch his tent nigh unto her, and shall lodge in a 
lodging where good things are. 

" He shall get his children under her shelter, and shall lodge 
under her branches." 

We may now take leave of the King's public life. 
All that can be told — at least all that the present 
writer has to tell of it — lies behind us. How unsat- 
isfactory the picture is at the best; how indistinctly 
most of the persons stand out from behind the mists 
of a thousand years; how necessary it has been at 
every step to hesitate as to the course and meaning 
of events; how many questions of grave importance 
remain scarcely stated, and altogether unsolved, no 
one can feel more strongly than he does. At the 
same time, unless the attempt has wholly failed, he 
must have in some sort made clear for his readers the 
figure of a king who, having by his own energy, and 
by his personal character and genius, won for him- 
self a position such as no man of the English race 
ever had before, or has ever had since, never used, 



278 ALFRED THE GREAT. 

or thought of using, his strength and wisdom on his 
own behalf, or for his own selfish purposes — a king, 
in short, who yielded himself to do the work to which 
God had called him, simply and thoroughly, never 
losing the consciousness that he was himself under 
command. 

We have still, however, to gather up such frag- 
ments as are left of the home-life of Alfred, and to 
glance at the work in which, after all, he probably 
most delighted— his writings and translations. 

Alfred, as we know, had no settled home. We 
find him now in one country, now in another, at one of 
the royal residences, which were indeed so numerous 
that we can only suppose the accommodation at many 
of them to have been of the roughest and simplest 
description. The ordinary houses of the Saxon 
nobles consisted of a large central hall, with chapel 
and rooms for the family attached, and outhouses 
for the servants and followers grouped round them. 
The whole of these buildings were of wood up to 
Alfred's time, and there were no deep moats or 
military defences of any kind. The king's resi- 
dences differed only in size from those of the nobility; 
but Alfred must have needed much more room than 
any of his predecessors, as his court became very 
large. Foreigners of all nations flocked to it, for 
whom special and liberal provision was made in the 
distribution of his income ; and besides his officers of 
state, he had always in attendance a strong body of 
troops, and a number of skilled artisans and me- 
chanics. 



THE KING'S HOME. 279 

The importance which he attached to the improve- 
ment of his own residences, and of the architecture of 
his churches and other public buildings, is shown by 
the large proportion of his income which, as we have 
seen, was devoted to building purposes. But not 
withstanding all his efforts, and the magnificence of 
many of his new buildings, compared with any then 
known in England, the quarters in w T hich the royal 
household lived were often rough places enough, as 
we know incidentally from the history of his most 
celebrated invention — the horn-lantern. At the 
time that he made the division of his yearly income 
in the manner we have heard, Alfred also resolved 
to offer to God no less of the service of his mind and 
body than of his worldly wealth. " He accordingly 
made a vow to consecrate half of his time to God's 
service; and this vow, so far as his infirmity would 
allow, he performed with all his might, by night and 
day. But inasmuch as he could not equally dis- 
tinguish the length of the hours by night, on account 
of the darkness, and also oftentimes of the day on 
account of the storms and clouds, he began to con- 
sider by what means, without any uncertainty, re- 
lying on the mercy of God, he might discharge the 
tenor of his vow till his death. After much thought 
on these things, he at length hit on a shrewd inven- 
tion. He commanded his chaplains to supply wax 
of sufficient quantity and quality, and had it weighed 
in such a manner that when there was so much of it 
in the scales as would equal the weight of seventy- 
two pence, he caused the chaplains to make six 



280 ALFRED THE GREAT. 

candles thereof, of equal length ; so that each candle 
might have twelve divisions marked across it. By 
this plan, therefore, those six candles burned for 
twenty-four hours — a night and day — without fail, 
before the sacred relics of many of God's elect, which 
always accompanied him wherever he went. But 
sometimes they would not continue burning a whole 
day and night, till the same hour that they w T ere 
lighted on the previous evening, from the violence of 
the wind, which blew without intermission through 
the doors and windows of the churches, the fissures 
at the divisions in the plankings of the walls, or the 
thin canvas of the tents. When, therefore, the 
candles burned out and finished their course before 
the proper time, the King considered by what means 
he could shut out the wind; and so, by a useful and 
cunning invention, he had a lantern beautifully 
constructed in wood and white ox-horn, which, when 
skilfully planed till it is thin, is no less transparent 
than a vessel of glass. This lantern, therefore, was 
wonderfully made of wood and horn, as we before 
said; and by night a candle was put into it, which 
shone as brightly without as within, and was not 
extinguished by the wind; for the opening of the 
lantern was also closed up, according to the King's 
command, by a door of horn. By this contrivance 
these six candles, lighted in succession, lasted twenty- 
four hours — neither more nor less ; and when these 
were extinguished, others were lighted." 

His taste and genius for science, and for me- 
chanics, are mentioned in several chroniclers, but 



THE KING'S HOME. 281 

there is no description left of any other invention of 
his. Asser, in a passage which sums up his every- 
day mode of life, says : " During the frequent wars 
and other trammels of this present life, the invasions 
of the Pagans, and his own daily infirmities of body, 
he continued to carry on the government, and to 
exercise hunting in all its branches; to teach his 
workers in gold and artificers of all kinds, his fal- 
coners, hawkers, and dog-keepers ; to build houses 
majestic and good beyond all the precedents of his 
ancestors by his new mechanical inventions; to 
recite the Saxon books, and especially to learn by 
heart the Saxon poems, and to make others learn 
them; and he alone never desisted from studying to 
the best of his ability. He attended the mass, and 
other daily services of religion ; he was frequent in 
psalm-singing and prayer at the hours both of day 
and night. He also went to the churches in the 
night-time to pray secretly, and unknown to his 
courtiers ; he bestowed alms and largesses on natives 
and foreigners of all countries; he was affable and 
pleasant to all, and curiously eager to investigate 
things unknown." 

That part of the above statement which speaks of 
the King's teaching his workers in gold has received 
curious illustration from the famous jewel found at 
[Newton Park, near Athelney, in 1693, and which is 
now in the Ashmolean Museum at Oxford. The 
jewel consists of a figure holding a flower in each 
hand, and composed of blue, green, red, and white 
enamel, let into golden cells. The settings and 



282 ALFRED THE GREAT. 

back of the jewel are of pure gold, the latter be- 
ing chased in a graceful pattern. It is about 
half an inch thick, and round the outside runs the 
scroll, " Alfred had me worked" — "Alfred mec 
heht gewyrcan " — stamped on the gold edge. 

The above description, from the pen of the in- 
timate friend who was at his side during all the later 
years of peace, helps us to picture to ourselves the 
life which the King lived in his great court — half 
camp, half city — which moved about all the southern 
counties, stimulating industry, and overawing out- 
laws and lawless men on the one hand, and exercising 
on the other a close and severe control over the acts 
of aldermen and sheriffs, and the decisions of judges. 
In the midst of this home of work, and with the 
example of the chief, and most diligent, worker 
always before their eyes, his family grew up round 
him. 

In his private life the King seems to have been as 
happy as he deserved to be. Of Queen Ethelswitha 
we know nothing, except that she was the faithful 
consort of her husband, and bore him many chil- 
dren. The early training of these must have been 
her chief work, and how admirably it was performed 
may be inferred from the results. Every child of 
Alfred turned out well. The girls of the royal 
family were trained in all kinds of womanly work; 
the four daughters of Edward the Elder, who must 
have been brought up in Ethelswitha's household, 
having been specially distinguished for their great 
assiduity and skill in spinning, weaving, and needle- 



THE KINGS HOME. 283 

work. And the processes used in these arts were by 
no means simple. Bishop Adhelm speaks, even in 
his time, of webs formed " with threads of purple 
and various other colours woven in with the shuttle, 
thrown from one side to the other, thereby forming 
a variety of different colours and figures, each in its 
own proper compartment knit together with ex- 
quisite art. 

The higher education, of girls as well as boys, went 
on in the schools attached to the court under Alfred's 
own eye. Probably his own daughters were at least 
as well taught as Queen Edgitha in the next century, 
who was often seen by Ingulphus in his boyhood, 
when his father was in the palace, as he came from 
school. " When I have met her she would examine 
me in my learning, and from grammar would proceed 
to logic, which she also understood, concluding with 
me in most subtle argument ; then causing one of her 
attendant maids to present me with a piece of money, 
I was dismissed to the larder, where I was sure to get 
something to eat." Ethelswitha survived her hus- 
band, and died at the court of her son in 905. 

The eldest child, Ethelfleda, born in the first year 
of her father's reign, when the Danes were in Read- 
ing camp, was married very early to the gallant 
Ethelred, the Alderman of Mercia, Alfred's " prin- 
ceps militise," as he is sometimes called. She 
shared the government with her husband, as Lady 
of Mercia, and after his death ruled gallantly in the 
centre of England, consolidating and strengthening 
the Mercian frontiers, against the Welsh on one side, 
and the East Anglians on the other. 



284 ALFRED THE GREAT. 

Their second daughter was Ethelgeda, who became 
abbess of the great monastery at Shaftesbury, which 
the King built soon after the peace of Wedmore. 
Her residence there may probably account for the 
special attachment which Alfred showed to the town, 
which he rebuilt as early as a.d. 880, if we may 
accept the evidence of William of Malmesbury. He 
mentions in his chronicle that he had seen a stone 
which was dug out of the old walls in his time, and 
which bore the inscription, " a.d. 880, Alfredus Hex 
fecit hanc Urbem, regni sui 8°." 

The third daughter, Elfrida, or Elfrith, became 
the wife of Baldwin of Flanders, the eldest son of 
Judith, Alfred's old playfellow, who had scandalized 
Christian England in the time of his boyhood by her 
successive marriages with his father and brother. 
How or when the reconciliation between them took 
place we do not know. 

The boys were Edward, afterwards, King Edward 
the elder, and Ethelward. Ethelward, the younger 
son, showed a turn for study, and, " by the divine 
counsels and prudence of the King, was consigned to 
the schools of learning, where, with the children of 
almost all the nobility of the country, and many also 
who were not noble, he prospered under the diligent 
care of his teachers." While Ethelward then was 
sent to Oxford (or whatever was the leading school 
of England), Edward seems never to have got beyond 
the school which was attached to his father's court. 
Asser states that he and Elfrith were bred up in the 
King's court, " and continue there to this day " (prob- 



THE KING'S HOME. 285 

ably about a.d. 887), adding in words which clearly 
apply to both the boys, though Ethelward's name is 
not mentioned. He continues : " They had the love 
of all about them, and showed affability and gentle- 
ness to all, both natives and foreigners, and were in 
complete subjection to their father. Nor amongst 
their other studies which pertain to this life, and are 
fit for noble youths, are they suffered to pass their 
time idly and unprofltably without learning the lib- 
eral arts ; for they have carefully learned the Psalms 
and Saxon books, especially the Saxon poems, and are 
continually in the habit of making use of books." 

But Edward inherited all his father's vigour and 
courage, as well as his kindly courtesy, and was ad- 
dicted to, and no doubt encouraged by Alfred in, the 
practice of martial sports, and hunting. There is a 
romatic story which connects his first marriage with 
a hunting expedition. Turning aside from his sport 
to visit an old woman who had been his nurse, he 
found living with her a girl of great beauty, named 
Edgina. She was the daughter of a shepherd, ac- 
cording to William of Malmesbury and Brompton, 
but at any rate was of lowly birth, and had dreamt 
that the moon shone out of her body so brightly 
that it illuminated all England. She had told the 
dream to the old nurse, who had adopted her, and 
now the Etheling came to make the dream true. 
There has been much discussion whether they were 
married, but the better opinion seems to be that 
they were. In any case, their son Athelstan was 
recognised by Alfred as his grandson when quite a 



286 ALFRED ON THE THRONE. 

child, and entrusted to Ethelred and Ethelfleda to 
bring up. When old enough to be brought to court, 
his guardians presented him to Alfred, who was so 
pleased with the boy's look and manner, that he 
" blessed him for king after his son Edward," and 
gave him a purple robe, a belt set with jewels, and a 
Saxon sword in a golden sheath. 

Edgina died early, and Edward had a large family 
by two other wives, of whom three daughters married 
the most powerful continental princes : Edgitha, the 
Emperor Otho I. ; Edgiva, Charles the simple ; and 
Ethilda, Hugo the Great, Duke of Burgundy and 
Austria, the rival of the Carlovingian line of 
Erankish kings. 

Readers must fill up for themselves the picture of 
the English life round the great King ; and a cheerful 
and healthy life it must have been, with its regular 
Avork interspersed with the well-kept Saints' days 
and Sundays, on which no bondman could be made 
to work without thereby gaining a right to his 
freedom. The discomfort of their houses was little 
felt by a hardy race, and, while their useful carpentry 
was of the rudest kind, their ornamental furniture 
comprised articles inlaid with the precious metals, 
and candlesticks and goblets and mirrors of wrought 
silver, and hangings of all bright colours. The 
descriptions which have reached us of the dresses 
and ways of the people go far to prove that England 
was merry England a thousand years ago. Men and 
women alike delighted in bright colours. The men, 
in peace time, wore a tunic of wool or linen, with 



THE KINGS HOME. 287 

eleeves to the wrists, and girded round the waist, and 
those who could afford them, bracelets and rings. 
The women wore dresses of linen or wool, often 
ornamented with embroidery; and silk hoods with 
long pendants, mantles, girdles, cuffs, and ribands, 
were also not unknown to them. Their ornaments 
were head-bands, necklaces, bracelets, and rings, many 
of which were of fine workmanship, and enamelled 
with gems. Their hair was dressed with curling 
irons, and with great care ; long curls being the mark 
of a free woman. Even the clergy were addicted to 
coloured garments and ornaments, which drew down 
on them, and on the people, the severe censures of 
stern ecclesiastics such as St. Boniface, who declared 
that the vain showiness in the dress of his people 
announced the coming of Antichrist. 

Gleemen, posture masters, and jugglers were 
always at hand to sing and tumble for the amuse- 
ment of rich and poor during meals and in the 
evenings ; and hunting, and hawking, and sword and 
buckler play, and horse-racing, filled up the intervals 
of more serious business. In short, in the immediate 
neighbourhood of the Court, the life of all but the 
King, and his bishops, and immediate attendants, 
must have passed in a round of strenuous work 
and rough and healthy sport, well calculated to 
develop the powers of his vigorous, if somewhat 
indolent people. 



288 ALFRED THE GREAT. 



CHAPTEE XXIII. 



THE KING AS AUTHOR. 



"The lips of the righteous feed many : but fools die for 
want of wisdom." 

It is impossible to accept as literally true Asser's 
statement, that it was not until the year 887 that 
Alfred began, on the same day, to read and interpret. 
That he could write as well as read when a boy, 
charters bearing his signature as early as 862, in the 
form, " I, Alfred, brother to the King, have con- 
sented and subscribed," clearly prove. It was prob- 
ably, however, in the month of November 887 that 
he began that series of books for his people which 
form, after all, his most enduring monument. But 
for Alfred's works the Anglo-Saxon spoken in the 
ninth century might never have reached us at all. 
When he was a boy the literature of his mother- 
tongue consisted of a few poems, such as those of 
Csedmon and Adhelm, sung by the people, and 
handed down from father to son, for even Bede had 
written his great work in Latin. When Alfred died 
he left all those of his people who could read versions 
of the best historical, philosophical, and religious 



THE KING AS AUTHOR. 289 

works which the times afforded in their own mother- 
tongue. Notwithstanding the evidence from the sev- 
eral prefaces to the works themselves, and from the 
passages interpolated in the text, which contain 
direct references to himself, and could scarcely have 
been written by any other person, it is almost beyond 
belief that he could have translated, paraphrased, and 
adapted all the books which are generally attributed 
to him. The pressure of public business of all kinds 
in the last fifteen years of his life, and the interrup- 
tion of the invasion of Hasting, which must have 
put a stop to his literary work altogether for three 
years, make it almost a physical impossibility ; and 
we are driven to the conclusion that Plegmund, 
Asser, and his chaplains must have done great part 
of the work under his immediate direction and super- 
vision. The wisdom and breadth of his views will 
be seen best by a short notice of the most celebrated 
of the works which he left to his people. But the 
most fitting introduction to these will be the account 
given by Asser of the interview which at last turned 
the King to literary work. 

" On a certain day," the Bishop writes, " we were 
both sitting in the King's chamber, talking on all 
kinds of subjects as usual, and it happened that I 
read to him a quotation out of a certain book. He 
heard it attentively with both his ears, and addressed 
me with a thoughtful mind, showing me at the same 
moment a book which he carried in his bosom, where- 
in the daily courses, and psalms, and prayers which 
he had read in his youth were written, and he coin- 

19 



290 ALFRED THE GREAT. 

manded me to write the same quotation in that book. 
Hearing this, and perceiving his ingenuous benevo- 
lence, and devout desire of studying the words of 
divine wisdom, I gave, though in secret, boundless 
thanks to Almighty God, who had implanted such 
a love of wisdom in the King's heart. But I could 
not find any empty space in that book wherein to 
write the quotation, for it was already full of various 
matters ; wherefore I made a little delay, principally 
that I might stir up the bright intellect of the King 
to a higher acquaintance with the divine testimonies. 
Upon his urging me to make haste and write it 
quickly, I said to him, ' Are you willing that I 
should write that quotation on some leaf apart ? For 
it is not certain whether we shall not find one or more 
other such extracts which will please you ; and if 
that should so happen, we shall be glad that we have 
kept them apart.' ' Your plan is good/ said he; and 
I gladly made haste to get ready a sheet in the begin- 
ning of which I wrote what he bade me ; and on that 
same day I wrote therein, as I had anticipated, no 
less than three other quotations which pleased him ; 
and from that time we daily talked together, and 
found out other quotations which pleased him, so 
that the sheet became full, and deservedly so ; accord- 
ing as it is written, i The just man builds upon a 
moderate foundation, and by degrees passes to 
greater things.' Thus, like a most productive bee, 
he flew here and there, asking questions as he went, 
until he had eagerly and unceasingly collected many 
various flowers of divine Scripture with which he 
thickly stored the cells of his mind. 



THE KING AS AUTHOR. 291 

u Kow when that first quotation was copied, he 
was eager at once to read, and to interpret in Saxon, 
and then to teach others. The King, inspired by 
God, began to study the rudiments of divine Scrip- 
ture on the sacred solemnity of St. Martin [Nov. 
11], and he continued to learn the flowers collected 
by certain masters, and to reduce them into the form 
of one book, as he was then able, although mixed 
one with another, until it became almost as large as a 
psalter. This book he called his Enchiridion" or 
Manual [Handbook], because he carefully kept it 
at hand day and night, and found, as he told me, no 
small consolation therein." 

This handbook is unfortunately lost, and the only 
authentic notices of its contents are two passages in 
William of Malmesbury's " Life of Bishop Aid- 
helm." From these it would seem that the handbook 
was not a mere commonplace book of passages copied 
from the books of famous authors, but that Alfred 
was himself gathering in it materials for a history 
of his country. The first passage cited merely cor- 
rects a statement that Bishop Aldhelm was the 
nephew of King Ina. The second relates how " King 
Alfred mentions, that a popular song which was still 
sung in the streets was composed by Aldhelm ; add- 
ing the reason why such a man occupied himself 
with things which appear to be frivolous. The people 
at that time being half barbarians, and caring very 
little about church sermons, used to run home as 
soon as mass had been chanted. For this reason the 
holy man would stand on a bridge which leads from 



292 ALFRED THE GREAT. 

the town to the country, and would meet them on 
their way home like one whose profession is the art 
of singing. Having done so more than once, he ob- 
tained the favour of the people, who flocked round 
him. Mixing by this device by and by the words of 
Holy Scripture with his playful songs, he led the 
people back to a proper life. Whereas, if he had 
preferred to act severely, and by excommunication, 
he would never have gained anything by it." This 
one specimen of the handbook which remains to us 
must heighten our regret at the loss of the remainder. 

THE HISTORY OF OROSIUS. 

The most arduous of all the King's literary 
labours must have been the reproduction of " The 
Universal History of Paulus Orosius " in Anglo- 
Saxon, for Alfred's work can scarcely be called a 
translation. He abridges, paraphrases, or enlarges at 
discretion, often leaving out whole chapters, and in 
places inserting entirely new matter. The scope of 
the work is summed up by its author in a passage of 
the forty-third chapter of the last book (which Al- 
fred has omitted) in which he addresses his friend 
St. Augustine, Bishop of Hippo. " I have now set 
out," writes Orosius, " by the help of Christ, and 
in obedience to your desire, O most blessed father 
Augustine, the lust and punishments of sinful men, 
the conflicts of the ages, and the judgments of God, 
from the beginning of the world to the present time ; 
that is to say, for 5617 years." This history had 
the highest repute in Alfred's time, and for centuries 



THE KING AS AUTHOR. 293 

afterwards, though it is not a compilation which 
would now interest any but curious readers. 

Orosius was born in Spain about a. d. 380, at Tar- 
ragona, and, like the great majority of the most 
active intellects of his day, took Orders early in life. 
The idea of the Universal History was suggested to 
him by St. Augustine, who appreciated the industry 
and ability of the young Spanish priest, and wished 
for his help in the work which he was himself 
engaged upon. This was his treatise " De civitate 
Dei," intended to refute the scandalous assertions 
of pagan Romans, that Christianity had injured 
mankind rather than benefited them. These writers 
founded their argument on the misfortunes which 
had befallen the Empire, and particularly on the 
recent sack of Rome by Alaric (a. d. 410). All 
these they attributed to Christianity, maintaining 
that since Christ's coming there had been no pros- 
perity or victories for Rome, whose glory and empire 
had miserably declined. In his " City of God " 
Augustine was himself showing, from the history of 
the Church, that the world was the better for Revela- 
tion. Having come already to his tenth book, the 
good Bishop seems to have become conscious of a 
weak point in his line of defence. In order to prove 
his case, the world as well as the Church must be 
called as a witness; and Orosius undertook this part 
of the task by his desire. 

The young Spaniard had already proved himself 
an able penman in a commentary on the heresies of 
Priscillian and Origen. Augustine's opinion of him 



294 ALFRED THE GREAT. 

appears in the letter of introduction with which, in 
a. d. 415, he sent him to St. Jerome, who was then 
living at Bethelehem preparing his translation of the 
Scriptures, which has since become the Vulgate. 
Notwithstanding his successful commentary, it 
would seem there were points as to the nature and 
origin of the soul on which Orosius was not sure of 
his own ground. Augustine, with the utmost frank- 
ness, admits his own inability to clear them up, and 
so sends the young man on to the greatest living 
scholar, writing of him, " Behold there has come to 
me a godly young man, in catholic peace a brother, 
in age a son, in rank a co-presbyter, Orosius by name 
— of active talents, ready eloquence, ardent industry, 
longing to be in God's house a vessel useful for dis- 
proving false and destructive doctrines, which have 
destroyed the souls of the Spaniards more grievously 
than the swords of the heathen their bodies. He has 
hastened hither from the shore of the ocean, hoping 
to learn from me whatever of the§e matters he wished 
to know; but he has not reaped the fruit of his 
labour. First I desired him not to trust too much to 
fame respecting me ; next I taught him what I could, 
and what I could not I told him where he might 
learn, and advised him to come to you. As he has 
willingly acceded to my advice, or command, I have 
asked him on his leaving vou that he would come to 
us on his way home." On his return to Africa, 
Orosius compiled his History of the World from 
Adam to Alaric, dedicating it to St. Augustine. It 
must have been a work of extraordinary labour, 



THE KING AS AUTHOR. 295 

having regard to the opportunities and materials at 
his command, but is now only interesting as a curi- 
osity. Mindful of the object of St. Augustine, Oro- 
sius sprinkles his narration here and there with 
moral Christian sentiments, as when he comes to 
Busiris sacrificing strangers : " I would now that 
those would answer me who say that this world is 
now worse under Christianity than it was under 
heathendom. Where is there now in any part of 
Christendom that men need dread amongst them- 
selves to be sacrificed to any gods ? " or again when 
speaking of Phalaris' bull : " Why do men com- 
plain of these Christian times, and say that they are 
worse than former times, when though they were 
with those kings doing evil at their desire, they 
might yet find no mercy from them ? But now kings 
and emperors, though a man sin against their will, 
yet, for love of God, grant forgiveness according to 
the degree of guilt." For the rest, the History 
rambles about from country to country, in a gossip- 
ing, unconnected manner; and, though probably the 
best account of human affairs available to Alfred, 
would scarcely detain us but for the additions which 
he has made to the text. 

Of these, by far the most remarkable are the 
accounts of the Northern voyages of Othere and 
Wulfstan, two of Alfred's sea-captains. Orosius' 
first book is devoted to the geography of the world, 
and gives the boundaries of the three continents, and 
some description of the countries and people who 
inhabit them, until he comes to the Swedes. Then 



206 ALFRED THE GREAT. 

Alfred abruptly leaves the text of Orosius, having 
himself something much more satisfactory as to those 
[Northern parts to set before his people. " Othere 
told his lord, King Alfred/' he breaks in, " that he 
dwelt northward of all the Northmen. He said that 
he dwelt in the land to the northward, along the west 
sea; he said, however, that that land is very long 
north from thence, but it is all waste except in a few 
places where the Fins here and there dwell, for hunt- 
ing in the winter, and in the summer for fishing in 
that sea." Then follows the description of Othere's 
famous Northern voyage, on which he started with 
the true instincts of an explorer, wishing to know 
how far the land extended to the North, and whether 
any one lived on the other side of the waste. The 
description is minute of the number of days' sail 
which the old Northman made, but where he went 
precisely has puzzled all the scholars who have ever 
examined the question to decide. It seems clear, 
however, that he actually sailed round the North 
Cape, and down into the White Sea, and that Alfred 
means to include the whole of Europe north of the 
Danube in the word Germania. The only people 
Othere finds in Scandinavia are, the Fins, and 
Beormas : the former letting their lands lie waste, 
and subsisting on fishing, fowling, and hunting; the 
latter having well-cultivated lands. Othere found 
in these parts whales with " very noble bones in their 
teeth," some of which he brought to the King, and 
ship-ropes made of their hides. But he thought little 
of this species of whale, as he calls them, having far 



THE KING AS AUTHOR. 297 

better whale-hunting in his own country, where the 
whales are most of them fifty ells long. Of these, he 
said, he and five others had killed sixty in two days. 

Othere told his king further of his own home in 
" the shire called Halgoland," and how he had 600 
tame reindeer of his own, six of which were decoy- 
deer, very valuable. Alfred adds that he was one of 
the first men of that country, " but had not more 
than twenty horned cattle, and twenty sheep, and 
twenty swine ; and the little that he ploughed, he 
ploughed with horses." But the wealth of Othere 
and the other great men of those parts, the King 
adds, comes for the most part from rent paid by the 
Fins — for what does not appear, so we may suppose 
that it was for permission to live, and hunt, and fish. 
This rent " is in skins of animals, and birds' 
feathers, and in whalebone, and in ships' ropes made 
of whales' hide, and of seals." Every man pays 
according to his birth : " the best corn, it is said, pay 
the skins of fifteen martens, and five reindeers, and 
one bear-skin, ten ambers of feathers, a bear's or 
otter's skin kyrtle, and two ship-ropes, each sixty 
ells long." 

Wulfstan's voyage from Sleswig to the mouth of 
the Vistula follows, with gossip worthy of Herodotus 
as to the Esthonians, or inhabitants of Eastland, who 
lived at the junction of the " Elbing " with that 
river : — " Eastland is very large, and there are in it 
many towns, and in every town a king; and there is 
also great abundance of honey and fish ; and the king 
and the richest men drink mares' milk, and the poor 



298 ALFRED THE GREAT. 

and the slaves drink mead. They have many con- 
tests amongst themselves ; and there is no ale brewed 
among the Esthonians, for there is mead enough."' 
These Esthonians, Alfred notes from Wulfstan, have 
the strangest customs with respect to burials and suc- 
cessions. The bodies of dead men are kept unburnt as 
long as possible by the relatives, according to their 
wealth ; kings and other great people lying in state 
for half a year. They are able to manage this be- 
cause among the Esthonians " there is a tribe which 
can produce cold, and so the dead in whom they 
produce that cold lie very long there and do not 
putrefy ; and if any one sets two vessels full of ale or 
water, they contrive that one shall be frozen, be it 
summer or be it winter.'' It is this discovery which 
enables the funerals of great men to be postponed for 
long intervals, according to the riches of the deceased. 
All the while the body is above ground there are 
drinking and sports, which last till the day of burial 
or burning, as the case may be. " On that day they 
divide the dead man's property into five or six por- 
tions, according to value, and place it out, the largest 
portion about a mile from the dwelling where the 
dead man lives, then another, then a third, and so 
on till it is all laid within the mile. Then all the 
neighbours within five or six miles who have swift 
horses, meet and ride towards the property ; and he 
who has the swiftest horse comes to the first and 
largest portion, and so each after other till the 
whole is taken ; and he takes the least portion who 
takes that which is nearest the dwelline:: and then 



THE KING AS AUTHOR. 299 

every one rides away with the property, and they 
may have it all ; and on this account swift horses are 
there excessively dear/ 7 — as we should conjecture. 

But although such accounts of the customs and 
habits of the people amongst whom his captains went 
are duly set down by Alfred, his main object in this 
part of the work is to lay down the geography of 
Germany, the cradle of his own race, as accurately as 
possible. The longest of the other additions by 
Alfred to his author's text is the description of a 
Roman triumph ; but there are a great number of 
smaller additions, such as the reference to the 
climate of Ireland, which Alfred says is warmer 
than that of England, and the fixing of the spot 
where Caesar crossed the Thames at Wallingford. 
Again, he omits constantly whatever in his judgment 
was immaterial, thus in all ways aiming to make his 
book as useful as possible for those whom it was his 
chief aim in all his literary work to raise and instruct 

BEDKS " ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY:' 

The next important work which bears the King's 
name is the translation of Bede's " Ecclesiastical 
History of the English Nation." Bede was " mass- 
priest of the monastery of the blessed apostles Peter 
and Paul, which is at Were Mouth," and his famous 
history extends from the landing of Julius Caasar to 
the year 731, when Keolwulf — to whom the book is 
dedicated as one " very careful of old men's words 
and deeds, and most of all of the great men of our 
nation " — was king of Northumbria, In that time 



300 ALFRED THE GREAT. 

of peace " many in the kingdom of Northumbria, 
both noble and ignoble, yearn more," Bede tells his 
king, " to give themselves and their children to mon- 
asteries and to God's service, than they exercise 
worldly warfare. What end the thing is to have, the 
coming age will see and behold." We have partly 
seen what came of it a century later. Alfred treated 
the Ecclesiastical History in the same manner as he 
had treated Orosius ; freely omitting, and abridg- 
ing; and correcting when his own knowledge as a 
West Saxon was more accurate than that of the 
venerable mass-priest, who had probably never wan- 
dered fifty miles from the monastery at Were 
Month. 

BOETHIUS. 

The " Consolations of Philosophy," which Alfred 
also translated, forms a striking contrast to the two 
historical works already noticed. Gibbon calls it " a 
golden book, not unworthy the leisure of Plato or 
Tully ; " and Dr. Hook, " the handbook of the Mid- 
dle Ages, for all who united piety with philosophy ; 9i 
and it has had two other illustrious English transla- 
tors — Chaucer and Queen Elizabeth. 

Boethius was a pious and learned Roman senator, 
who was consul a. d. 487, two years before the inva- 
sion of Italy by Theodoric the Ostrogoth. For many 
years he continued in favour at court, and lived to 
see the consulate of his sons. But he incurred the 
anger of Theodoric for an attack on the Arian 
heresy, and for the boldness with which he main- 
tained the ancient rights of the senate, and was ban- 



THE KING AS- AUTHOR. 301 

ished from Rome, and imprisoned at Pavia. Here, 
before his execution, (a. d. 526,) he wrote the " Con- 
solations," in the form of a dialogue between him- 
self, or his mind, and Wisdom, or Reason. The bur- 
den of the work is, that every fortune is good for 
men, whether it seem good to them or evil, and that 
we ought with all our power to inquire after God 
every man according to the measure of his under- 
standing, a philosophy which Alfred's whole life 
illustrated, and which he was naturally anxious to 
impress upon his people. 

There is a short preface to the King's version, 
which is held by Dr. Pauli to be the work of some 
other hand ; but if not by Alfred, it is full of the 
manliness and humility which distinguished him, 
and explains so well the method of all his literary 
work, that it cannot be omitted here : — 

" King Alfred was translator of this book, and 
turned it from book-Latin into English, as it is now 
done. Sometimes he set word by word, sometimes 
meaning by meaning, as he the most plainly and 
most clearly could explain it, for the various and 
manifold worldly occupations which often busied him 
both in mind and in body. The occupations are to us 
very difficult to be numbered which in his days came 
upon the kingdom which he had undertaken, and 
yet when he had learned this book, and turned it 
from the Latin into the English language, he after- 
wards composed it in verse, as it is now done. And 
he now prays, and for God's name implores every 
one of those who list to read this book, that he would 



302 ALFRED THE GREAT. 

pray for him, and not blame him, if he more rightly 
understand it than he could. For every man must, 
according to the measure of his understanding, and 
according to his leisure, speak that which he 
speaketh, and do that which he doeth." 

There is extant a translation of Boethius into 
Saxon verse, as mentioned in this preface, but it 
would seem, in the judgment of the best scholars, not 
to have been the work of Alfred. 

GREGORYS PASTORAL. 

Gregory's " Pastoral Care " was also translated 
by the King; to it is prefixed the introduction 
addressed by him to Bishop Werefrith, from which 
quotations have been already made. It commences 
with a description of the sad decay of learning in 
England, and an exhortation to the Bishop that he, 
who is at leisure from the things of this world, will 
bestow the wisdom which God has given him where- 
ever he is able to bestow it. " Think what punish- 
ment shall come upon us on account of this world, 
when we have not ourselves loved it in the least 
degree, or enabled other men so to do. We have had 
the name alone of Christians, and very few of the 
virtues. When I then called to mind all this, then I 
remembered how I saw, ere that all in them was laid 
waste and burnt up, how the churches throughout all 
the English race stood filled with treasures and 
books, and also a great multitude of God's servants ; 
but they knew very little use of those books, for that 
they could not understand anything of them, because 



THE KING AS AUTHOR. 3Q3 

they were not written in their own language, such 
as they our elders spoke." The King goes on to 
wonder why those good and wise men, who loved 
wisdom themselves, and got wealth and left it, had 
never been willing to turn any of the books they 
knew so well into their own language. But he soon 
answered himself that they must have left it undone 
of set purpose, that there might be more wisdom and 
knowledge of languages in the land. However, he 
will do what he can now to remedy all this. " Where- 
fore I think it better, if it also appears so to you, that 
we two should translate some books, which are the 
most necessary for all men to understand; that we 
should turn these into that tongue which we all can 
know, and so bring it about, as we very easily may, 
with God's help, if we have rest, that all the youth 
that now is among the English race, of free men, that 
have property, so that they can apply themselves to 
these things, may be committed to others for the sake 
of instruction, so long as they have no power for any 
other employments, until the time that they may 
know well how to read English writing. Let men 
afterwards further teach them Latin, those whom 
they are willing further to teach, and whom they 
wish to advance to a higher state. 

" When I then called to mind how the learning of 
the Latin tongue before this was fallen awav 
throughout the English race, though many knew how 
to read writing in English ; then began I, among 
other unlike and manifold business of this kingdom, 
to turn into English the book that is named in Latin 



304 ALFRED THE GREAT. 

* Pastoralis,' and in English the ' Hind's book/ one- 
while word for word, another-while meaning for 
meaning, so far as I learned it with Phlegmund my 
archbishop, and with Asser my bishop, and with 
Grimbold my mass-priest, and with John my mass- 
priest. After I had then learned them, so that I 
understood them, and so that I might read them with 
the fullest comprehension, I turned them into Eng- 
lish, -and to each bishop's see in my kingdom will 
send one, and on each is an ' sestel,' that is of the 
value of fifty mancuses, and I bid, in God's name, 
that no man undo the £estel from the books, nor the 
books from the minister. It is unknown how long 
there may be so learned bishops as now, thank God, 
are everywhere. For this, I would that they always 
should be at their place, unless the bishop will have 
them with him, or they be anywhere lent, or some 
one write others by them." 

There are several manuscript copies of the " Pas- 
toral Care " in Anglo-Saxon in the public libraries 
of the country, which are supposed to be some of 
those referred to in Alfred's introduction as having 
been sent by him as presents to his bishops. The 
sestel, worth fifty mancuses, which accompanied each 
copy, has disappeared. Alfred, to judge from the 
care with which he provided for its circulation, 
places more value on this than on any other of his 
works. To us it is, perhaps, the least valuable, 
being occupied chiefly with the difficulty and impor- 
tance of the teacher's or priest's office, the danger of 
filling it unworthily, and the duty of all who are 



THE KING AS AUTHOR. 305 

thoroughly competent to undertake it to do so, bear- 
ing in mind that he who is himself under the do- 
minion of evil habits makes a bad intercessor for, or, 
teacher of, other men. 

BLOSSOM GATHERINGS FROM ST. AUGUSTINE. 

The " sayings which King Alfred gathered " out 
of the writings of St. Augustine are perhaps the 
most instructive of all his works, as they show best 
where his natural bent carried him, and what he 
himself valued most, and desired most to give to his 
people. His own portion of the work consists of 
some three clauses of introductory matter. These 
begin so abruptly, that it is supposed that some sen- 
tences are lost. Alfred describes himself as in a 
wood full of comely trees, fit for javelins and stud 
shafts, and helves to all tools, and bay timbers and 
bolt timbers. " In every tree I saw something," the 
King writes, " which I needed at home, therefore I 
advise every one who is able, and has many wains, 
that he trade to the same wood where I cut the stud 
shafts, and there fetch more for himself, and load 
his wain with fair rods, that he may wind many a 
neat wall, and set many a comely house, and build 
many a fair town of them ; and thereby may dwell 
merrily and softly, so as I now yet have not done. 
But He who taught me, to whom the wood was agree- 
able, he may make me to dwell more softly in this 
temporary cottage, the while that I am in this world, 
and also in the everlasting home which He has 
20 



306 ALFRED THE GREAT. 

promised us through St. Augustine, and St. Greg- 
ory, and St. Jerome, and through many other holy 
fathers; as I believe also that for the merits of all 
these He will make the way more convenient than 
it was before, and especially enlighten the eyes of 
my mind, so that I may search out the right way to 
the everlasting home and the everlasting glory, and 
the everlasting rest which is promised us through 
those holy fathers. May it be so ! " Then he reverts 
to his original idea of working in a wood. " It is no 
wonder though men swink in timber working, and in 
the carrying and the building : but every man wishes, 
after he has built a cottage on his lord's lease by his 
help, that he may sometimes rest him therein, and 
hunt, and fowl, and fish, and use it every way under 
the lease, both on water and on land, until the time 
that he earn bookland and everlasting heritage 
through his lord's mercy. So do the wealthy Giver, 
who wields both these temporary cottages and the 
eternal homes. May He who shaped both, and 
wields both, grant me that I be meet for each, both 
here to be profitable and thither to come ! " There is 
something very touching in this opening, in which 
Alfred allows his fancy to play round the idea of a 
woodman, like one of his own churls, cutting timber 
for his house and his weapons, and building on his 
lord's land, in the hope of one day realizing the 
object of every Saxon man's ambition, a permanent 
dwelling, bookland of his own ; and in the side-glance 
at his own life of incessant toil, and longing for a 
home where a man may dwell " merrily and softly " 



THE KING AS AUTHOR. 307 

in summer and winter, " so as I now yet have not 
done." It is only a glance which he allows himself, 
and then the strong fighter turns hack to his work, 
trusting that He who has shaped and wields both 
lives may grant him " both here to be profitable and 
thither to come." One more short passage intro- 
duces his gatherings to those for whom they were 
made. " Augustine, Bishop of Carthage, " he 
writes, " wrought two books about his own mind. 
The books are called ' Soliloquiorum,' that is, of 
his mind's musing and doubting, how his reason an- 
swered his mind when his mind doubted about any- 
thing, or wished to know anything which it could not 
understand before." 

The " blossom gatherings " all bear upon the 
problem with which Alfred then opens them, by the 
quotation of St. Augustine's saying, " that his mind 
went often asking of and searching out various and 
rare things, and most of all about himself, what he 
was : whether his mind and his soul were mortal 
and perishing, or ever living and eternal ; and again 
about his good, what it was, and what good it were 
best for him to do, and what evil to avoid." 

THE KING'S PROVERBS. 

The last of the works attributed to Alfred which 
need be specially mentioned, is the collection of prov- 
erbs, or sayings, in verse and prose, found amongst 
the Cotton manuscripts. It is a compilation of much 
later date than the ninth century, written in a broken 
dialect, between the original Saxon and English. 



308 ALFRED THE GREAT. 

The compiler has put together some thirty-one stan- 
zas and paragraphs, each of which begins, " Thus 
quoth Alfred, England's comfort," or " England's 
herdsman," or " England's darling," and the collec- 
tion is prefaced by a short notice in verse of the 
occasion on which the sayings are supposed to have 
been spoken. 

" At Sifford there sate many thanes, 
Many bishops, many learned, 
With earls, and awful knights ; 
There was Earl Alf rich very learned in the law ; 
There also was Alfred, England's herdsman, 

England's darling ; 
He was king of England, he taught them, 

All who could hear him, 
How they should lead their lives. 
Alfred was a king of England, that was very strong. 
He was both king and scholar, he loved well God's work ; 
He was wise and advised in his talk ; 
He was the wisest man that was in all England." 

This introduction would seem to point to some 
particular witan, held probably at Seaford, or Shif- 
ford, near Bampton, in Oxfordshire, the tradition 
of which was still fresh. There is no mention in the 
Saxon Chronicle, or elsewhere, of any such assembly, 
but some of the sayings bear a strong resemblance to 
parts of Alfred's writings, and may have been accu- 
rately handed down and reported. A specimen or 
two will be enough. The opening saying runs: — 

" Thus quoth Alfred, England's comfort : 
Oh that you would now love and long after your Lord ! 



THE KING AS AUTHOR. 309 

He would govern you wisely, 
, That you might have honour in this world 
And yet unite your souls to Christ." 

Then come a series of instructions to kings and 
officers of state, on the education of young men and 
children, and on the use of wealth, in which the 
King, speaking to his nobles and to his children, 
enforces the direct responsibility oft all men to 
Christ, and the worthlessness of wealth unless dis- 
creetly used, — old ideas enough, a thousand years 
ago, and as needful of repetition then as now. 

" Thus quoth Alfred, England's comfort ; the earl 
And the Atheling are under the king, 
To govern the land according to law ; 

The priest and the knight must both alike judge uprightly ; 
For as a man sows 
So shall he reap, 
And every man's judgment comes home to him to his own 
doors." 

In almost the last of the series, the King addresses 
his son: — 

" Thus quoth Alfred : My dear son, sit thou now 
beside me, and I will deliver thee true instruction. 
My son, I feel that my hour is near, my face is pale, 
my days are nearly run. We must soon part. I 
shall to another world, and thou shalt be left alone 
with all my wealth. I pray thee, for thou art my 
dear child, strive to be a father and a lord to thy 
people; be thou the children's father, and the 
widow's friend; comfort thou the poor and shelter 



310 ALFRED THE GREAT. 

the weak, and with all thy might right that which is 
wrong. And, my son, govern thyself by law, then 
shall the Lord love thee, and God above all things 
shall be thy reward. Call thou upon Him to advise 
thee in all thy need, and so He shall help thee the 
better to compass that which thou wouldest." 

Besides the works already mentioned, there is a 
long list of original writings and translations attri- 
buted to Alfred. Of the former, Spelman gives ten, 
including " selections from the laws of the Greeks, 
Britons, Saxons, and Danes," and original treatises 
" against unjust judges," on " the uncertain fortunes 
of kings," and " the acts of magistrates," and " a 
manual of meditations." Of the latter, the " Dia- 
logues of Pope Gregory," and translations of parts 
of the Scriptures, are the only w r orks of his as to 
which there is anything like a concurrence of testi- 
mony, and it is more than probable that the former 
was the work of Bishop Werefrith under Alfred's 
supervision. An old manuscript history of Ely is 
the authority for the statement that he translated 
the whole of the Old and New Testaments into 
Saxon; but the better opinion seems to be, that the 
Psalms were the only portions of the Scriptures 
which he undertook to translate, and that he was at 
work on his Saxon Psalter at the time of his death. 



THE KING'S DEATH AND WILL. 311 



CHAPTEK XXIV. 

THE KING'S DEATH AND WILL. 

" A good life hath few years, but a good name en dure th for 
ever." 

"Honourable age is not that which standeth in length of 
time, nor that is measured by number of years." 

The world's hardest workers and noblest bene- 
factors have rarely been long-lived. The constant 
wear and stress of such a life as Alfred's must tell 
its tale, and the wonder is, not that he should have 
broken down so soon, but that he should have borne 
the strain so long. 

In the fifty-fourth year of his age, " six days be- 
fore All-Hallo wmass," or on the 26th of October, 901, 
"'died Alfred, the son of Ethelwulf. He was king 
over the whole English nation, except that part which 
was under the dominion of the Danes, and he held 
the kingdom a year and a half less than thirty years, 
and then Edward, his son, succeeded him." Such is 
the simple account of the great King's ending in the 
Saxon Chronicle. It understates the length of his 
reign by a year. Florence and the other chroniclers 



312 ALFRED THE GREAT. 

tell us nothing more, except that his body was buried 
in the new monastery at Winchester, which he had 
himself founded, and which his son was destined to 
finish. 

We know neither the place nor cause of his death ; 
and there is some dispute as to his burial-place. 
Some of the chroniclers name the church of St. Peter ; 
others, the New Minster monastery. The conflicting 
accounts are reconciled by a story, that the canons of 
the cathedral church, from jealousy of Grimbald and 
the monks of the new monastery, declared that the 
spirit of Alfred could not rest, but might be seen 
wandering at night within their precincts ; whereupon 
Edward at once removed his father's coffin to the 
monastery. In the time of Henry I. when the abbey 
of New Minster was removed to Hyde from the 
immediate neighbourhood of the cathedral, Alfred's 
remains were carried with them, and there rested till 
the Reformation, when the royal tombs were broken 
open at the dissolution of the monastery. But the 
" pious Dr. Richard Fox," bishop of Winchester, had 
the remains of the kings collected carefully and put 
into chests of lead, with inscriptions on each of them, 
showing whose bones were within; and the chests 
were placed, under his supervision, on the top of a 
wall of rare workmanship, which he was building to 
enclose the presbytery of the cathedral. Here the 
dust of the great King rested till the taking of Win- 
chester by the Parliamentary troops, under Sir Wil- 
liam Waller, on the 14th of December, 1642. The 
Puritan soldiers, amongst other outrages, threw down 



THE KING'S DEATH AND WILL. 313 

and broke open Bishop Fox's leaden chests, and scat- 
tered the contents all over the cathedral. When the 
first excitement of the troops had cooled down, what 
were left of the bones of our early kings were rev- 
erently collected, and carried to Oxford and " lodged 
in a repository building next the public library." 

The country had enjoyed such profound peace for 
the four years preceding the King's death, that for 
two of them the Saxon Chronicle has no entry at all, 
and only mentions the deaths of the Alderman of 
Wiltshire, and the Bishop of London, in 898. In 
Simeon's Chronicle it is stated that Bishop Eardulf, 
who had carried the remains of St. Cuthbert about 
for nine years through the northern counties, hiding 
from King Halfdene's robber troops, and who had at 
last been able to deposit them in a shrine of his own 
cathedral, died in the same year with Alfred. It is 
pleasant to know that our " most noble miser of his 
time " must have seen of the travail of his soul and 
been satisfied in those last years. His grievous dis- 
ease had abated in his forty-fifth year, and he closed 
his eyes on peace at home and abroad, in church and 
state, abundance in the field and in the stall, and 
order and justice established in every corner of his 
kingdom : " His name shall endure under the sun 
amongst the posterities, and all the people shall praise 
him." 

The last monument of his justice and patriotism 
is his will, of which happily a perfect copy was pre- 
served in the archives of the abbey of New Minster. 
The opening recitals have been already quoted. 



314 ALFRED THE GREAT. 

They show how anxious he was that the memory 
of the agreement between himself and his brother 
should be kept alive ; and now, in pursuance of that 
agreement, he devises eight manors to ^Etheline, the 
elder son of his brother Ethelward ; and to Ethelwald, 
the younger, the manors of Guildford, Godalming, 
and Steyning. The principal part of his lands in 
Wilts and Somersetshire, including the famous royal 
burgh of Wedmore, he leaves to Edward, coupled 
with a touching reference to some arrangement which 
he had made at some time with his tenants at Ched- 
dar : " And I am a petitioner to the families at 
Ceodre, that they will choose him (Edward) on the 
conditions that we had formerly expressed." All his 
other children have gifts of manors, and to his wife 
he leaves the manors of Wantage, Lambourn, and 
Ethandune. The field of Ashdown is scarcely three 
miles from Lambourn, and may well have been in- 
cluded in that manor. If this be so, the King left 
to his faithful helpmate, his birthplace, and the scenes 
of his two great victories. 

His personalty is also distributed justly and muni- 
ficently. To each of his sons he leaves 500 pounds ; 
to his wife and daughters, 100 pounds each. To each 
of his aldermen and his nephews, 100 mancuses ; and 
to Ethelred, a sword of the value of 100 mancuses. 
Like legacies are left to Archbishop Ethelred, and to 
Bishops Werefrith and Asser. Then turning to his 
servants and the poor, he bequeaths " 200 pounds for 
those men that follow me, to whom I now at Easter- 
tide give money," to be divided between them after 



THE KING'S DEATH AND WILL. 315 

the manner that he had up to this time distributed 
to them. " Also," hec ontinues, " let them distribute 
for me, and for my father, and for the friends that 
he interceded for, and I intercede for, 200 pounds, — 
50 to the mass-priests over all my kingdom, 50 to 
the poor ministers of God, 50 to the distressed poor, 
50 to the church that I shall rest at. And I know 
not certainly whether there be so much money; nor 
I know not but that there may be more, but so I 
suppose. If it be more, be it all common to them 
to whom I have bequeathed money. And I will that 
my alderman, and councillors, be all there together 
and so distribute it." 

He then declares that in former times, when he 
had more property and more relations, he had made 
other wills which he had burned, all at least that he 
could recover. If any of these should be found, let- 
it stand for nothing. And he wills that all those 
who are in possession of any of the lands disposed 
of by his father's will should fulfil the intentions 
there expressed the soonest they may, and that if any 
debt of his remains outstanding his relations should 
pay it. 

Then follows the passage on the strength of which 
Alfred is cited as the author of entails in England: 
" And I will that the men to whom I have given my 
book-lands do not give it from my kindred after their 
day, but I will that it go unto the highest hand to me 
unless any one of them have children, then it is to 
me most agreeable that it go to that issue on the 
male side so long as any be worthy. My grandfather 



316 ALFRED THE GREAT. 

gave his lands to the spear side, not to the spindle 
side. Wherefore if I have given to any woman what 
he had acquired, then let my relations redeem it, if 
they will have it, while she is living ; if otherwise, let 
it go after their day as we have determined. For 
this reason I ordain that they pay for it, because 
they will succeed to my estates, which I may give 
either to the spindle side or the spear side, as I 
will." 

Lastly, he is mindful of the slaves on his lands, 
whose condition he had greatly improved, but whom 
he had not been able entirely to free. " And I be- 
seech, in God's name, and in His saints', that none of 
my relations do obstruct none of the freedom of those 
I have redeemed. And for me the West Saxon nobles 
have pronounced as lawful, that I may leave them 
free or bond, whether I will. But I, for God's love 
and my soul's health, will that they be masters of 
their freedom and of their will ; and I, in the living 
God's name, entreat that no man do not disturb them, 
neither by money exaction, nor by no manner of 
means, that they may not choose such man as they 
will. And I will that they restore to the families at 
Domerham their land deeds and their free liberty, 
such master to choose as may to them be most agree- 
able, for my sake, and for Ethelfleda's, and for the 
friends that she did intercede for, and I do intercede 
for." These Domerham families of churls would 
seem to have dwelt on some estate in which the lady 
of Mercia was jointly interested with her father. 
" And let them " (my relations and beneficiaries) 



THE KING'S DEATH AND WILL. 317 

i: seek also with a living price for my soul's health, 
as it may be and is most fitting, and as ye to forgive 
me shall be disposed." 

These are the last words which " England's Shep- 
herd " left to his country. It is no easy task for any 
one who has been studying his life and works to set 
reasonable bounds to their reverence, and enthusiasm, 
for the man. Lest the reader should think my esti- 
mate tainted with the proverbial weakness of bio- 
graphers for their heroes, let them turn to the words 
in which the earliest, and the last of the English his- 
torians of that time, sum up the character of Alfred. 
Florence of Worcester, writing in the century after 
his death, speaks of him as " that famous, warlike, 
victorious king; the zealous protector of widows, 
scholars, orphans, and the poor ; skilled in the Saxon 
poets; affable and liberal to all; endowed with pru- 
dence, fortitude, justice, and temperance; most pa- 
tient under the infirmity which he daily suffered; a 
most stern inquisitor in executing justice; vigilant 
and devoted in the service of God." Mr. Freeman, in 
his " History of the Norman Conquest," has laid 
down the portrait in bold and lasting colours, in a 
passage as truthful as it is eloquent, which those who 
are familiar with it will be glad to meet again, while 
those who do not know it will be grateful to me for 
substituting for any poor words of my own. 

" Alfred, the unwilling author of these great 
changes, is the most perfect character in history. 
He is a singular instance of a prince who has become 
a hero of romance, who as such has had countless 



318 ALFRED THE GREAT. 

imaginary exploits attributed to him, but to whose 
character romance has done no more than justice, and 
who appears in exactly the same light in history and 
in fable. INo other man on record has ever so thor- 
oughly united all the virtues both of the ruler and of 
the private man. In no other man on record were so 
many virtues disfigured by so little alloy. A saint 
without superstition, a scholar without ostentation, a 
warrior all whose wars were fought in the defence of 
his country, a conqueror whose laurels were never 
stained by cruelty, a prince never cast down by adver- 
sity, never lifted up to insolence in the day of triumph 
— there is no other name in history to compare with 
his. Saint Lewis comes nearest to him in the union 
of a more than monastic piety with the highest civil, 
military, and domestic virtues. Both of them stand 
forth in honourable contrast to the abject superstition 
of some other royal saints, who were so selfishly en- 
gaged in the care of their own souls that they re- 
fused either to raise up heirs for their throne, or to 
strike a blow on behalf of their people. But even in 
Saint Lewis we see a disposition to forsake an imme- 
diate sphere of duty for the sake of distant and un- 
profitable, however pious and glorious, undertakings. 
The true duties of the King of the French clearly lay 
in France, not in Egypt or Tunis. Xo such charge 
lies at the door of the great King of the West Saxons. 
With an inquiring spirit which took in the whole 
world, for purposes alike of scientific inquiry and of 
Christian benevolence, Alfred never forgot that his 
first duty was to his own people. He forestalled our 



THE KING'S DEATH AND WILL. 310 

own age in sending expeditions to explore the North- 
ern Ocean, and in sending alms to the distant 
Churches of India ; but he neither forsook his crown, 
like some of his predecessors, nor neglected his duties, 
like some of his successors. The virtue of Alfred, 
like the virtue of Washington, consisted in no mar- 
vellous displays of superhuman genius, but in the sim- 
ple, straightforward discharge of the duty of the mo- 
ment. But Washington, soldier, statesman, and pa- 
triot, like Alfred has no claim to Alfred's further 
characters of saint and scholar. William the Silent, 
too, has nothing to set against Alfred's literary mer- 
its ; and in his career, glorious as it is, there is an ele- 
ment of intrigue and chicanery utterly alien to the 
noble simplicity of both Alfred and Washington. 
The same union of zeal for religion and learning with 
the highest gifts of the warrior and the statesman is 
found, on a wider field of action, in Charles the Great. 
But even Charles cannot aspire to the pure glory of 
Alfred. Amidst all the splendour of conquest and 
legislation, we cannot be blind to an alloy of personal 
ambition, of personal vice, to occasional unjust ag- 
gressions and occasional acts of cruelty. Among our 
own later princes, the great Edward alone can bear 
for a moment the comparison with his glorious ances- 
tor. And, when tried by such a standard, even the 
great Edward fails. Even in him we do not see the 
same wonderful union of gifts and virtues which so 
seldom meet together; we cannot acquit Edward of 
occasional acts of violence, of occasional recklessness 
as to means; we cannot attribute to him the pure, 



320 ALFRED THE GREAT. 

simple, almost childlike disinterestedness which 
marks the character of Alfred." 

Let Wordsworth, on behalf of the poets of England, 
complete the picture. 

" Behold a pupil of the monkish gown, 
The pious Alfred, king to justice dear ! 
Lord of the harp and liberating spear ; 
Mirror of princes ! Indigent renown 
Might range the starry ether for a crown 
Equal to his deserts, who, like the year, 
Pours forth his bounty, like the day doth cheer, 
And awes like night, with mercy-tempered frown. 
Ease from this noble miser of his time 
No moment steals ; pain narrows not his cares — 
Though small his kingdom as a spark or gem, 
Of Alfred boasts remote Jerusalem, 
And Christian India, through her wide-spread clime, 
In sacred converse gifts with Alfred shares." 



THE KING'S SUCCESSORS. 321 



CHAPTER XXV. 



THE KING S SUCCESSORS. 



" A good man leaveth an inheritance unto his children's 
children." 

The death of Alfred was the signal for a revolt of 
his younger nephew Ethelwald, against the decisioa 
of the witan, who named Edward as his father's 
successor. Ethelwald was a reckless, violent man, 
who had scandalized the nation by taking to wife a 
nun " without the King's leave, and against the 
Bishop's command." He seized the royal castles of 
Wimborne and Christchurch, and in the former the 
Chronicle tells us, " sat down with those who had 
submitted to him, and had obstructed all the ap- 
proaches towards him, and said that he would do one 
of two things — or there live, or there lie. But, not- 
withstanding that, he stole away by night and sought 
the army in Northumbria, who received him as their 
over-lord, and became obedient to him." 

This effort of Ethelwald only proved the sound- 
ness of the foundations of the kingdom which Alfred 
had laid. The Pretender fled from Wessex and 
21 



322 ALFRED THE GREAT. 

Mercia without being able to break the peace, and 
was not heard of again for two years. In 904, 
however, he came with a fleet of Northmen to Essex, 
and a portion of the Danish people there submitted 
to him. The next year he was strong enough to 
attack his cousin, and penetrated through Mercia to 
the Thames, which he crossed at Cricklade, and 
committed some depredations in Berkshire. Edward 
was not in time to catch him in Wessex, and so fol- 
lowed him with a strong force across Watling Street, 
into East Anglia, and there overran " all the land 
between the dikes and the Ouse, as far north as the 
fens." Not having been able to bring Ethelwald 
to an action, Edward turned south again, and, being 
in an ememy's country, and in face of a strong army, 
" proclaimed through his whole force that they 
should all return together. Then the Kentish men 
remained there behind, notwithstanding his orders, 
and seven messengers he had sent to them ;" and, 
Ethelwald falling on them, a general action was 
brought on, in which the loss on both sides was very 
great, but on the Danish side both Ethelwald, and 
Eohric king of East Anglia, were slain, and soon 
afterwards Edward made peace with the East Angles 
and Northumbrians. 

Ethelred of Mercia died in 910, and London and 
Oxford were incorporated in Wessex. In the next 
year the Danes broke the peace again, relying prob- 
ably on the weakness of a woman's rule in Mercia. 
But the lady of Mercia proved as formidable an 
enemy as her lord. In concert with her brother she 



THE KING'S SUCCESSORS. 323 

not only drove the Danes out of her own boundaries, 
but won from them, and made safe, one stronghold 
after another in the midland counties. Thus in 
913, while Edward invaded Essex, and took and for- 
tified Hertford, " Ethelfleda, a lady of the Mercians, 
went with all the Mercians to Tamworth, and there 
built a fortress early in the summer; and, before 
Lammas, another at Stafford." 

Again, in 915, she fortifies Cherbury, Warburton, 
and Runcorn; in 916, defeats the Welsh, and storms 
Brecknock; and in 917, "God helping her, got pos- 
session of the fortress which is called Derby, and 
all that owed obedience thereto: and there within 
the gates were slain four of her thanes, which caused 
her much sorrow." Edward in the meanwhile was 
steadily extending his frontier, and gaining the al- 
legiance of many Danish nobles, such as Thurkytel, 
the earl, who " sought to him to be his lord, and all 
the captains, and almost all the chief men who owed 
obedience to Bedford, and also many of those who 
owed obedience to Northampton." The lady of Mer- 
cia died in 918 at Tamworth, when the whole of Mer- 
cia came to Edward, whose niece Elfwina, the only 
child of Ethelred and Ethelfleda, came to her uncle's 
court in Wessex. 

Thus the kingdom grew under his hand, disturbed 
frequently by raids of the Welsh and Danes, but on 
the whole steadily and surely. The north Welsh 
sought him to their over-lord in 922, and in 924 cC the 
King of the Scots, and the whole nation of the Scots, 



& 



324 ALFRED THE GREAT. 

and all those who dwelt in !Northumbria, chose him 
for father and for lord." 

In the next year he died, and Athelstan was elected 
by the witan, and conscerated at Kingston. Dun- 
stan, who was fated to bring such misery on the royal 
family, and on the nation, was born in the same year. 

For fifteen years Athelstan ruled with vigour and 
success, extending still the English frontiers. He 
gave the South Britons the Tamar instead of the Exe 
as their boundary, and occupied Northumbria him- 
self after Sigtric, the king, had deserted his Saxon 
wife Edith, Athelstan's sister. In 937, Scots, 
Danes, Welsh, and a great host from Ireland, led by 
Anlaf, a son of Sigtric by a former marriage, made 
a desperate effort to shake off the over-lordship of 
Athelstan. Anlaf landed in the Humber, and after 
effecting a junction with his allies, laid siege to 
York, which was held for Athelstan. The siege was 
raised by the news of Athelstan's crossing the Hum- 
ber on his march to the relief of the northern capital, 
and soon afterwards the battle of Brumby, near 
Beverley, was fought, in which the allies were utterly 
defeated and five kings slain. The victory was so 
complete, and of so great significance, that even 
the Saxon Chronicle breaks away from its usual 
severe matter-of-fact form into a song of triumph. 
A spirited poem, describing the battle, and singing 
the praises of Athelstan, and his younger brother 
Edmund the Etheling, is given for the year 937. 
The ring of it is like the death-song of Regner 
Lodbrog, as it tells how 



THE KING'S SUCCESSORS. 



325 



" West; Saxons onward 
Throughout the day 
In bands 

Pursued the footsteps 
Of the loathed nations. 



They had no cause to 
laugh 



That they in war's works 
The better men were 
In the battle-stead 
At the meeting of spears, 
That they on the slaugh- 
ter field 
With Edward's offspring 
played." 



and how 



" King and Etheling 
Both together 
Their country sought, 
West Saxon land ; 
Leaving behind them, 
The corses to devour, 
The yellow kite, 
The swarthy raven 
With horned nib, 
And dusky ' pada,' 
Erne white-tailed, 
Greedy war-hawk, 



And the grey beast 
Wolf of the wood. 
Carnage greater has not 

been 
In this island 
Ever yet, 
Of people slain 
By edge of sword ; 
As books us tell, 
Old writers, 

Since from the East hither 
Angles and Saxons 
Came to land." 

Edmund the Etheling succeeded his brother in 
940, and on his death in 946, Edred, the youngest 
of the sons of Edward, was elected king; Edwi and 
Edgar, the sons of Edmund, being still minors. 
Both of these grandsons of Alfred pursued their 
father's policy, and Edred finally annexed Eorth- 
umbria, and divided it into shires, over which he 
set his own earls. He died in 955. 

Thus for two generations Alfred's descendants in- 
herited his courage and ability, and carried on with 



326 ALFRED THE GREAT. 

signal success one part of his work. To quote Words- 
worth's sonnets once more : — 

" The race of Alfred covet glorious pains 
When dangers threaten, dangers ever new, 
Black tempests bursting, blacker still in view ! 
But manly sovereignty its hold retains : 
The root sincere, the branches bold to strive 
With the fierce tempest." 

There is, unfortunately, little proof of the truth 
of the beautiful concluding lines, — 

" While within the round 
Of their protection gentle virtues thrive ; 
As oft, mid some green spot of open ground 
Wide as the oak extends its dewy gloom 
The fostered hyacinths spread their purple bloom." 

Rather it would seem that in that half century, 
during which England had become one vast camp, 
the learning and the arts of peace which Alfred had so 
wisely and nobly fostered were fast slipping away 
from the people; and corruptions had again crept 
into monasteries and convents (enriched rapidly by 
the race of devout warrior princes), which rendered 
necessary the reforms of Dunstan and Bishop 
Ethelwald on the one hand, and led to the disastrous 
collisions between Church and State on the other. 
But we are not concerned with the later history, and 
it is only noticed thus far to show that the King's 
example continued to inspire his son and son's sons. 

THE END. 



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